I Found My Heart in San Fransokyo
by Moviefreak523
Summary: (Revised) GoGo takes in her younger brother, Akira, to live with her in the city after his suicide attempt. While Akira learn to accept himself and San Fransokyo as his new home, he meets with the Hamada Brothers and develops a relationship with Hiro, a 14-year old high school graduate who feels trapped by expectations of him because of his high intellect. (Hiro x OC)
1. Chapter I

**Chapter I: Homecoming**

" _Hey, sis. I just got off from the train. I'll be waiting in Terminal B."_

" _Cool. I'm on my way. I should be there soon,"_ GoGo typed on her iPhone and press "Send."

"Damn it," she said, slumping back into her seat. She could not believe her good fortune of getting stuck in dead traffic in the middle of a freak thunderstorm. Stuck and surrounded by cars on all sides, it look as though she would not be able to move for a while. Must be some sort of accident up ahead she wondered. She felt gracious for Wasabi in letting her barrow his car after promising him ten times that she'd keep it as immaculate as she found it. She reminded herself to throw away the empty bottle of soda once she reach the train station.

Figuring that it would be some time before she be able to move, she set the car into park and turn the volume up a bit on the radio, drowning out the drumming raindrops around the car and settle herself in for a potentially long wait. If she was going to get stuck in the middle of traffic, she wasn't going to die of boredom anytime soon. However, instead of listening to the song, her mind traveled back in time to figure out how all of this had come to be.

It was just last week on Sunday when she received a vague message from her father, all the way from her hometown on the other side of the country, that Akira, her younger brother, was in the hospital. It didn't go into any details beyond that, but he assured her that he's doing okay and that he'd pay for her train ticket for her to come back home ASAP. Taking up on it, she immediately let her school know of her family emergency and her friends offered to help her out, taking her back to her apartment to hastily pack her luggage and drive her to the train station. They gave her brother their best wishes and she boarded the last train of the day and, for that entire ride that lasted all night, she finally dropped her cool composure. Her mind wreak with fear and trepidation, she wondered could have happened to her baby brother.

On Monday morning, she arrived at her hometown, the first time in three years since she left for college. She hardly slept a wink but she didn't care. She found her mother and father waiting for her at the station and they quickly made their way to the hospital. The entire time, while her father drove, she noticed how silent her mother was, looking out in front through the windshield with a blank stare, uncaring of what was ahead. It was eerie for GoGo to find such a distant look from such a lively personality that she had known all her life. She asked repeatedly what had happened but they seemed reluctant to say anything, like they are were trying to understand what just happened themselves. Finally, her father explained that yesterday morning, he found Akira inside of his bedroom closet, having hung himself with his bed sheet. Luckily, he wasn't there for a long time before any permanent damage could occur. However, it did nothing to console GoGo's anxiety. In fact, it only heightened her fear with the fact dawning on her that her brother tried to take his own life.

She jumped out of the car before her father could park, running all the way to the front lobby. Impatient, she demanded to see him, wanting to see with her own eyes that Akira's truly okay. It wasn't until her parents caught up with her that she stopped before she went hysterical and she followed them inside, walking through the maze of hospital corridors and elevators until they finally reached his room. He had his eyes close when she went to his side and sat next to him. At first, she thought that he might be dead until she gently moved some strands of hair from his eyes and he opened them, looking straight up at her, and a small, sad smile formed on his lips.

"Hey, sis," he whispered. It was enough to make her cry while she held him tightly.

All Monday and into Tuesday, the question of why he would try to take his own life became the dominant topic, but no matter what they say, even with assurance that still love him, he refused to say anything. He often turned his head away, which he does when he didn't want to say anything that he refused to say. It was then that her parents start to wonder if what had happened at school recently had anything to do with it. It was then that GoGo first learn about Akira's recent troubles in school where he was involved in a fight with another boy that resulted in his three day suspension a month ago. This came out of left field for her to hear because Akira never told her about it and she never thought that he it would happened to him because of his quiet personality around school. After the incident, her father tried to talk to the boy's parents about it, but it didn't go anywhere, and with Akira's silence on the whole matter, the nature of the fight remained a mystery. Not even the school knew what it was about, but they suspected that somebody must know.

Wanting to get the bottom of the whole thing, they got the police involved to do an inquiry of the whole matter. It wasn't until the next day on Wednesday that they reveal some startling information. Apparently, according to some of the students that were willing to talk, the boy that Akira got himself into a fist fight had been bullying him along with some other kids for quite some time, about three months or so, and the reason for it was because of rumors about Akira's sexual orientation. While her parents were confused about it, GoGo quickly understood what it meant, but it made her stomach churn. _Has this been happening the whole time without my knowing?_ she wondered. For the rest of the day, she sat next to her comatose brother. He stubbornly defied to look at anything except for the ceiling, uninterested in the whole world around him, much less his sister. She talked to him, knowing that he would be listening, telling him of what she had learned, including the rumors that circled around him that ultimately led to what happened.

Tears flowed from his eyes and he hid himself underneath the white bed sheets in a vain attempt to make himself disappear. She told him, repeatedly, that she didn't care whether he was gay or straight, that she'd always love him no matter what. She held on to him, allowing him to let out a cry that lasted all night. On Thursday morning, he was ready to talk.

In the presence of GoGo, his stunned parents, the police officers, and someone from the local newspaper, Akira talked about how the boy, a popular basketball player, had one day came up to him during art class and asked him for help with an art project. For Akira, it was odd for someone to just walk up and talk to him. In school, while he held a reputation for being a talented artist, he was more so known to be a very shy and quiet student. With no friends, he was an above average student who mostly kept to himself. After that, Akira continued to help the boy with his projects and, soon, a friendship was struck between them, the two bonding together with discussions they shared together like video games. But, it never traveled outside of the class until the boy actually invited Akira over to his home on the weekend. "Just to hang out," the boy had said to him.

Their parents immediately remembered that day and they talked of how happy they were that Akira managed to make a friend at school, but he never told them who it was. He left home just in the afternoon and came back at around four after a couple of hours. Asked further about what happened, Akira was reluctant to answer, but a loving squeeze of his hand from his mother and an assuring pat from his father gave him the courage to press further.

The boy's parents weren't there nor were any of his other friends. It was just the two of them, alone. They just played video games for that entire, nothing out of the ordinary, until the boy offered Akira some beer. Wishing to impress him, he drank three cans of it and became intoxicated. When pressed furthered about what happened next, Akira confessed that his memory was fuzzy, but one thing stood out and that was when he kissed the boy, firmly on the lips. It was immediately afterwards that he was thrown out of the house and he came back home, still feeling drunk and slept for the rest of the day. It was the next day at school that the bullying began. Their parents admit that they suspected that he was drunk when he arrived home that day, but they didn't say anything about it, but they never knew anything about the bullying until now.

It seemed that it was enough for the police and they finished up with the questions and thanked Akira for his courage. They explained that they do not know what they would do next, figuring that they could charge the boy for aggravated assault, but Akira asked them to not to do anything, that he wanted all of it to just go away. After they left, however, the newspaper reporter wasn't completely satisfied and had one more question for Akira. "Would you describe yourself as a homosexual?" the man said.

Akira seemed stumped by the question and he looked at his parents and GoGo for help. Figuring that it was enough, their father sent the man away. After that, the family thought the nightmare was about to be over. However, on Friday, it had only just begun.

When the story broke out in the local newspaper, the response was quick and decisive from many of the town's citizens. While there were some support for Akira, expressing sympathy, other more vocal voices, including the boy's father, accuse the newspaper of being bias and called Akira's "kiss" a form of sexual assault and demanded that Akira be label as a sex offender. Getting some nasty letters that called Akira all sorts of terrible names, GoGo felt that it was time for her to have a word with this boy.

Getting to the house, she found the boy in question in his backyard along with his friends and they, at first, called out to her to join them. She ignored it and demanded to talk to the boy alone, which he happily obliged. They stepped away out of sight from the others and she talked to him about what had been happening recently. He didn't seem at all bothered by what was going on. In fact, it was almost like he was relishing the attention being heft upon him from people seemingly more concern for his wellbeing than Akira. Getting straight to the point, GoGo ask if everything that Akira had said was true, and he confirmed it, including the bullying, for which he held a proud look on his face. It took all of her willpower not to strangle him.

"Were you that upset over a little kiss?" GoGo asked. "To go and bully him to the point of him nearly committing suicide?"

"I wouldn't mind it if it was from a cute girl," he said. "Not from some faggot."

With the urge to not punch him in the face, she had one last curiosity she wanted to know about. "What was the first thing that happened when you two meet up again in school after that kiss?"

"He said that he was sorry for what he did."

Surprised by the news, Akira had never said anything about it, she went up into his face and gripped his shirt, nearly lifted up from the ground. "Then, why the fuck did you have to bully him? Did you do it just for kicks?"

The boy only shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah," he said as if it was no big deal.

GoGo didn't realized what just happened until she found the boy reeling on the ground, holding onto his nose and groin with blood seeping through his clinched fingers over his face. But, unlike her brother, she was not in the mood to apologize. "Go to hell, you little piece of shit!" she screamed and quickly walked away, fighting back her tears while his cries were like music to her ears.

On Saturday, Akira was well enough to be release from the hospital, but they had to leave through the back because of some of the press waiting outside asking for questions. All Akira wanted was to go home. With no police meeting with the family during that time, GoGo assumed and trusted that the boy's pride, and him not knowing who she is, would keep him from saying anything about it and figured that she didn't need to tell her parents or Akira of what happened. After they arrived home, the elephant in the room was finally discussed, pertaining to Akira's future in the town, if he even still had one.

If there was one thing her parents and GoGo agreed on, it was that Akira could no longer attend his current school and that he would transfer to a different one. But, to which one, they did not know. The closet school required a bus ride and Akira had to walk three miles to reach one of its designated stops. Akira said that he was fine with it, but his mother, fearing for his safety, said that it was out of the question and that she would drop him off and pick him up every day if she had to. However, because of the news spreading out so quickly even in a small community, GoGo felt that there will be other people who might not be welcoming towards Akira judging by how many people were reacting to the story, including many of the students in other school who had sent death threats to their home. It was a big wake-up call to GoGo, having lived all her childhood in a town with so many happy memories, to discover it to be so close-minded and it broke her heart to see the town in its true colors. After some reflection, they all came to the painful decision that the best option was for Akira to leave and to live with GoGo in San Fransokyo. She whole-heartedly agreed to it without any second thoughts.

She took the train back to the city on the next day Sunday, having discussed and made plans with her parents for the move with a timeline, as well as locating a psychiatrist for Akira to see once in the city. It was more work put on top of her hefty school work, but she took it in stride because it was for Akira's sake. She felt that she owe it to him after staying away from him for so long. After Akira finish with his finals in school, he would be ready to take the train bound for San Fransokyo.

A horn blared above the loud music and she looked around to find cars slowly moving forward. "Finally," she said. She placed the gear into drive and began moving along with the traffic. She wondered what Akira could be doing right now to skip the boredom. Maybe reading a book or playing on his DS.

It was rather incredible that the two were so much different from each other and yet be siblings. While she's more interested in the science, he gravitated towards the arts. She spoke her mind while he reserved his opinions, when it came to strangers. She's the athlete and he's the bookworm. However, that didn't stop the two in having a close-knit relationship.

They talk to each other every month, something that can go on for hours, mostly just shooting the shit, which made her realize that they rarely ever talked about Akira's personal life like his school or him in general. On her way back home on the train, she looked through every single message that she received from him within the couple of years and recall every phone conversation she had with him, trying to find any clues that she could have missed that hinted at his suffering. None came off as worrisome, almost like he didn't want to burden her with his troubles, to convince her that everything was, in his own words, "hunky-dory" when in reality it wasn't. She felt exasperated and hateful, not only at her hometown, the people (many of whom she knew her whole life), the school, and the damn bully, but, most of all, at herself.

In the three years since she first moved to the city to attend the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, she had never attempted to return home because it proved itself to be too expensive for her to make the round trip along with the constant school work, along with her main project, keeping her occupied even on breaks and vacations, so she had missed birthdays and Christmases, so many chances lost to actually be with her family, especially with her brother, only watching him grow through images and videos sent to her. She love her life in San Fransokyo, of how it allow her to follow her passion and dreams, to let her be who she wanted to be, but she missed Akira so much. And, after nearly losing him over something so stupid, it took everything inside of her to not break down in the entire time after she came home and waited for him to come. She need to stay strong for Akira because, starting today, she would be his guardian. He needed her more than anything.

The traffic picked up speed, the congestion starting to clear up with more room between the vehicles and the rain continuing with its downpour, pounding onto the windshield with the wipers at full tilt, swinging back and forth to clear her vision. She want to get there fast. She finally arrived at the station twenty minutes later, pulling up to the sidewalk and parking in front of the entrance that lead to Terminal B underneath the huge awning that kept the rain off. She turned the car off, got out, and headed for the revolving door, it endlessly spinning with people entering and exiting through it. Inside, she scanned the packed area from side to side until she found him sitting in one of the front row seats, playing on his DS, looking like he was trying to disappear from the busy world around him with his white headphones covering his ears.

For a kid who valued the arts, he had simple taste. Just turned fourteen, he certainly had grown much, but he was still shorter than her, standing just below her shoulders. His moppish black hair covered much of his forehead with his huge-rimmed glasses settling on his face underneath. His purple hoodie jacket hung on him loosely, a size too big for him, and his blue jeans showed years of wear with some lost colorization and little spots of glued-on dirt and small tears along his pant legs, contrast to his clean black sneakers that look brand new. They might be a good-bye presents from their parents.

She walked up to him and playfully kicked his foot and he looked up at her. She smiled at him. "Hey," she greeted him.

"Hey," he said indifferently with a matching expression and he placed his DS and headphones into his book bag in the next seat.

"How was the train ride?" she asked.

"It's was fine."

Going silent, she was hoping that he would be a little excited. After all, it was his first trip to San Fransokyo. But, then again, given the circumstances surrounding the whole thing, she understood why he wouldn't be happy about it. His home was no longer his home anymore, an outcast to say the least. It may not be a happy occasion, but she was glad to see him nonetheless. He stood up with his book bag over his right shoulder and she reached out to him, enveloping him into a big hug. He quickly hugged her back, though not enthusiastic, but she still felt his love while he squeezed her hard like trying to hold onto a life preserver. _He's afraid_ she surmised.

"I promise, Akira. Things will be much better for you here," she said, fully believing in her conviction.

"Okay," he said, sounding a little hopeful. She kissed the top of his head to seal the promise and to let him know that she was happy to have him here regardless.

Letting go of their hug, the two started headed out towards the revolving door with GoGo holding Akira close to her with her arm around his shoulders. "So you did cut your hair," Akira said, looking up at her like he was discovering it for the first time. "And you dyed it a bit."

"Yeah," she said. "Did it in my second year. It was getting in the way. Bit of a safety hazard."

"Looks really nice."

"Thanks," she said, smiling. She found it a good start and she rubbed his messy hair. "Maybe we can give you the same treatment."

"It's fine," he said, pushing her hand away.

"We can go do it right now. I think blue would look great-"

"I said it's _fine,_ Tomoko," he said, forcefully.

 _Maybe not_ she thought, dropping the matter. _Just give him some time to adjust. This is a big change for him after all._

"Okay, maybe some other time," she said. "And, the name's GoGo now."

He looked back at her with a cocked eyebrow. "GoGo?"

"Yeah, a nickname that a friend gave to me from college."

"It's pretty silly, especially for you."

"I know."

"So, why are you using it?"

"It grew on me."

Stepping through the revolving door outside, the rain had begun to disperse and sunlight peeked out from the gray clouds. _I hope this is not some bad omen disguised as a sign from above that things will get better_ GoGo thought. She led Akira to the car and unlocked the front passenger door. She let him inside and quickly hopped into the driver's. Akira, all buckled up, tapped onto his iPhone and GoGo could see that he was typing a text message to their parents, letting them know that he arrived.

"Any place you want to go?" GoGo asked.

"I don't know anything about the city," he said matter-of-factly.

"There's lots of things you can do. We can go eat out, shop at the mall, catch a movie. Whatever you want."

Akira sat silently, looking out at the wetted windshield where tall buildings stood in the distance with more of the blue sky filling up the sky. "Maybe later," he said. "I just…" he paused and let out a deep sigh. "I just want to go home."

Without pressing it further, she turned the ignition and set it into drive. Pulling out onto the line and heading for the freeway into the city, she could see that the gray clouds were mostly gone and that the city glimmered gloriously underneath the sunlight like providence had gave its blessing. Akira didn't seem to notice it, silently watching the passing world through the window with his head propped up on the door. She hoped that what she said about things becoming better would not turn out to be a lie.


	2. Chapter II

**Chapter II: Change of Scenery**

The elevator opened its doors to let Tomoko and Akira stepped off onto their floor and they walked down the red, carpeted corridor, looking as ostentatious as one would see in a hotel. Akira looked around, letting the fact sink in that they just climbed 74 floors up. "It's not much, but it's cozy," Tomoko said, leading the way. She carried Akira's book bag over her shoulder in her insistence. "I had to move some things around to get you your own room, with all the boxes that came over. The best part, though, is that the walls are sound proof, so you can play your music or movies or games as loud as you want."

She stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall with the number 7430 labeled in gold just above the peephole. She fished in her pocket, pulled out a single key, and held it out to him. "Go on, open it," she said, smiling encouragingly. He took it and inserted it into the knob. The door swung inward and she motioned him inside where she turned on the lights.

The day was still young, but it was ready to draw to a close with the sun about to dip behind the tall buildings through the curtained glass door at the end of the living room to his right. "Your room is down the hall, last door to your left," she pointed straight ahead of them. "I'm going to return the car back to my friend and come back with some dinner. Anything that you want?"

"Anything's fine," Akira said.

Pausing for a few seconds, Tomoko nodded. "Okay. Just remember, you have to eat whatever I get you," she said teasingly. "Go on and relax, take a bath. This is your new home, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Akira said with empty emotion. Seemingly ignoring his behavior like it was normal, she gave him a quick kiss on the head and an affectionate rub of his hair for good measure. She placed the book bag onto the floor and walked out of the door, locking it behind her. Alone, Akira study his new environment.

Modest looking, the living room looked as though it had more than the bare necessities with a black leather couch sitting up against the white wall along with two tall, fern plants on each side of it to give some color to an otherwise dank room. They looked very well cared for with how lush their green leaved looked. On the opposite side sat a huge, flat-screen television resting on top of an entertainment stand where a couple of Tomoko's personal game systems rested on its bottom shelves along with some game cases laying on the blue carpet. A coffee table sat in the middle of the room with considerable room in between it and the television. It look so clean that either she cared for it a lot or she just recently cleaned it up.

On his left held the kitchen, smaller in area with the counters wrapping around the perimeter with one lone counter sitting as an island that looked like it also serve as a table with two bar stools placed at each end. The sink overflowed with dirty dishes and he could see the linoleum floor hadn't been touched, with dirt stuck around the edges and corners and crumbs scattered across. The refrigerator stood the furthest away from him, a white-board calendar floated from the top door with dates and several notes covering many of its squares along with "X's" marked for each passing day, but he could see that she hadn't followed it up for a few days as if distracted with the note of his arrival on today's box unmarked.

He slipped out of his shoes and walked over to the sink, astonished to find it in such a state. He looked at the counters to find endless crumbs and damp dirt. He figured that if he was going to live here, it would not look like a pigsty. Taking off of his jacket, he hung it on the back of the barstool and proceed with the cleaning.

He wiped down the counters with paper towels, pushing all of loose grime into his hands, and tossed it into the trash where he found it completely full. He knew that she can be a bit of a slob, but it was becoming ridiculous. He shuttered on what the bathroom might look like. He went to the sink, separated the dishes out onto the lone counter for some room, and filled the metal tub with soapy, hot water.

He cleaned each individual dish and silverware, scrubbing them thoroughly until they look clean and placing them in the drying rack. Finding the pots sitting on the stove tops, he figured he need to soak them overnight. Cleaning the silverware, he pulled out a knife and paused to stare at it. Gripping on the black handle with its curves along its sharp side, he remember watching a movie where one of the characters killed himself by slitting his wrist while sitting in a hot bath. He did thought about doing that before he decided on hanging himself, but he didn't like the thought of cutting himself and wondered how effective it really was. Holding the blade over his exposed wrist, he imagined how much blood it would spill out. It probably would be gruesome and quickly washed the knife before he decided on making that final move.

Music immediately filled the air and he instantly recognized it coming from his iPhone. He managed to program "Fight On" from _Final Fantasy VII_ as its ringtone, one of his favorites. He hastily dried his hands and quickly went for his jacket pocket, thinking that it was Tomoko asking him what he really wanted. He pulled out his flashing iPhone and, instead, it told him that it was from his father. Taking in deep breath, he pressed the answer button and the music stop.

"Hello?" he said.

"Akira?" his father's calm voice came out from the speaker. "We just got your message that you arrived at San Fransokyo alright."

"Yeah. I'm at Tomoko's place right now."

"That's good," he said, sounding relief.

"Akira honey?" a woman's voice called out from speaker and he instantly recognized his mother.

"Hey, mom," he said.

"How are you, my son?"

"I'm doing well."

"How was the train ride?"

"It was…uneventful."

"Really? I thought you'd be excited, going on a trip across the nation like that, getting to see everything," she said, trying to sound excited for him, but he could detect worry in her tone. "Are you sure that you are doing okay? Like, really okay?"

"Yes, I'm doing good, Mom," he said reassuringly.

"Okay." A pause lingered in air and he could hear repressed cries and sniffling from the other end. "Akira, don't you ever forget that you are precious son and I love you very, very much. Okay?"

"Okay, mom," he said, his eyes stinging with tears while he held back his emotions.

"I don't care who you are, you are my baby, always will be. So…" A small cry escaped and he could hear muttering for a few seconds between his parents. "Here's your father. Be a good boy and know that there are people that love you, especially your sister."

"Yeah," Akira whispered.

A pause lingered for a few seconds while he hear his mother's cry fade in the distance. "Akira?" his father came back on.

"Dad?"

"Is there anything that we can do for you?"

"N-No," Akira answered.

"Okay. I know that this is very sudden, you having to move to the big city like this and so far away. I wish that…things were a little different. But, that's how life is, sometimes it can come out of nowhere where you are not prepared for it and you have to go along with it, no matter what. Summer vacation is here, so, take the time to relax, breathe a little better. I know the last few weeks have even incredibly rough for you."

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"I'm…I'm sorry."

An uncomfortable pause lingered in the air and the tears finally let themselves fall from his eyes, his guilt filling up inside of him.

"No, no," his father said calmly. "You have nothing to be sorry about. Like I said, sometimes things just happened, whether we wanted it to or not. This is nobody's fault, especially not yours. Just hang in there. You're a strong boy. If you need to talk to me about anything, do not hesitate to call me at any time, 24/7. Or, to anyone that you trust. Alright?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. Are you sure there isn't anything that we can do for you right now?"

"Yes. I'm good, Dad."

"Okay. I love you, son."

"I love you, too, Dad."

After they say their goodbyes, Akira pressed the end call button and the phone went silent. Placing it on the countertop, he forgot all about the dishes. He felt tired. He walked down the hall, passing the first doors on each side of him, curious of locating his new room. Just as Tomoko said, he found it on the last door on the left. He opened it and stepped inside. His bed lined up against the wall on the far right, already made with its sheets covering the mattress along with his blanket and pillow. His computer desk sat on the opposite wall and corner with his computer on one side and the television facing his bed. Two bookcases and a DVD stand stood up along the wall, all empty of their contents, figuring that all of his books, movies, and video games were still packed in the boxes that sat on the floor. His dresser, made by his father for him, was set up in between his bed and closet next to him where he flipped up one of the light switches, but the ceiling fan began turning. He quickly switched it back down and turned the other one up, lighting the room.

Walking inside, he didn't feel productive at all and flopped himself onto his bed and just lay there unmoving, planting his chin into the blanket. His body, mind, and soul felt fatigued and he held no interest for anything, not for the rest of the day, the next day, or even for the rest of the summer. He didn't want to do anything, leaving the many ongoing projects abandoned in his computer, his drawings hidden in his sketchbook unfinished, or to even to read anything or watch anything or play anything. Just lay on his bed and try to forget about the world outside while a sense of restlessness continued to stir inside of his heart.

He wasn't sure how long he laid there, maybe a couple of minutes or an hour, but he began to feel like taking a bath. Maybe it might snap him out of this rut. He got up from his bed and made his way to his suitcase, pulling out a set of pajamas and a towel, and headed for the bathroom.

To his surprise, he found it immaculately clean. Small and compact, there's just enough room to hold a sink, toilet, and a bathtub in the back. He turned on the hot water and dump bath soap into the tub, took off his glasses and clothes, and step into the filling tub. Settling down, he watched the water rise slowly while white foam spread across the surface until it reached his face. The tub nearly full, he shut the water off and lay back down, the steam hovering around him while his chin sitting on just above the plateau of bubbles.

"A new home, huh?" he said. "A new place, with new people. To start a new life. All because I made a stupid move."

It was a big surprise when he invited Akira to come over to his house over the weekend, but Akira felt so excited and happy by it because he had never been good at making friends the entire time that he had been to school. He always kept to himself, never interacted with any of the students, barely with the teachers unless it was related to schoolwork. When he came up to him and asked him for some pointers during art class, he didn't know what to do. It was when he was about to walk away that Akira finally spoke up and helped him out with his project, and it slowly led to them talking about other things that the two actually sat next to each other during class, discussing about anything that came to mind. Much of the time he talked about his basketball team and the games they played during the season, but they would delved into video games or movies. He wasn't as interested in the old movies like Akira who adore black and white films, but he was an avid gamer much to Akira's delight.

However, they never spend any time together outside of art class and he acted as if they never knew each other. But, Akira wanted to say "Hi" to him whenever they walked past each other in the hallways, or to join him in class projects, or eat with him during lunch, but he would be with his friends and he never aimed his eyes towards him. Akira actually went out of his way to attend a couple of basketball games alone and he would only focus his attention on him while he played vigorously out on the court. He was star player and he had many fans of the opposite sex who would constantly cheer for him the loudest. After the last buzzer sounded to end the game, he tried to reach him, but the crowd would surround the team in an instant, making it impossible for him to get anywhere close that he left the game empty-handed. By the way he talks about those games made it clear that he never noticed Akira there and Akira would follow his story like he never went there in the first place.

Then, out of the blue, he invited him over to his house over the weekend. He didn't understand it at first but he quickly forgot about it, immediately saying "Yes!" It was the first time that he told his parents about it and he saw how happy they were for him to make a friend in school. His mother treated it like a momentous moment when he left for his house, giving him a big hug and his father patting him on the back as if a job well done and he walked out of the door.

At the house, he was surprise to find that his parents weren't there, nor were any of his friends. It was just the two of them, but he didn't question it. They played a couple of video games together as well as talking about them, and he remember having a great time. After some time, he offered Akira beer to drink. At first, Akira wanted to refuse, but wanting to impress him and not look weak, he took it. He didn't like the taste, but he didn't comment on it and he kept drinking until he finished it. Then, he took another, and another, until he felt himself a little off.

And, it happened.

He wasn't sure how long it lasted. Maybe a few seconds, a few minutes. He didn't know. All he could remember was being forced out of the house and walking back home, sneaking back inside and sleeping until the next morning, but that little memory still lingered in his head. He wasn't sure how he really felt about it. He didn't think it was terrible. In fact, thinking about it made his heart fluttered with delight, but Akira figured that maybe he didn't like it anyway given how he was pushed out of the house like that. When he arrived at school the next day, the first thing he did was to apologize to him for what he did and hoped that they can still remain friends. Instead, his nightmare began.

He wanted to tell his parents, his sister, to anybody, but he was too afraid of him having to explain to them of what happened and how they would react if they began to suspect something of him. Akira admit that he found him attractive, but he never thought more of that, never wanted to anyway. How could he tell them that he felt himself attracted to another boy the same way that a normal boy would be to a girl? They would find him revolting and could even disown him, wanting to get rid of him and to never speak to him again.

In a way, they did just that, sending him away to some far away city. But it was for his protection, and he would be staying with his sister. He could still feel that squeezing hug his mother gave him just before he step onto the train, not wanting him to go, and how his father told him to be brave and to follow his heart. He said that he was still a little shock of what happened and wondered what will happen, but he promise that will continue to love him like always. He never forgot how his mother fainted when his train rolled off and his father had to carry her.

A knock on the door woke him up from his thoughts. "Akira, you in there?"

"Uh, yeah," Akira said. He realized that the water was becoming cool and the foam shrinking.

"I got dinner all set up on the table whenever you're ready," she said.

"Alright! I'm coming out!" he said.

"Okay. Take your time, there's no rush. Don't want you to slip in there," she said.

Standing up in the tub, he lift the release valve to drain the water and he stepped out. After he dried himself off, his winkled fingers told him how long he had stayed in the water. He slipped into his underwear and pajamas and looked himself in the mirror. _No frowns or tears_ he told himself, not wanting to worry Tomogo too much about him, reminding himself that she had too much work with school. He pushed both sides of his lips up to mold a smile, but it refused to stay put. He quickly gave up.

He stepped outside and found her sitting at the counter in her seat, already digging into her food with chopsticks, placing a bundle of noodles into her mouth. He found his food on the other side with a bottle of soda. There were several containers, one with noodles, the other with dumplings, and a box of sweet and sour chicken along with the sauce.

"I figured that you be pretty hungry," she said, looking proud of the amount of food she got. "Go on, eat up."

Taking his seat, he picked up his chopsticks and began digging into his noodles. He love Chinese food, but this looked much different than what he was used to. He didn't feel all that hungry, but he began eating in silence.

"I know this isn't exactly Mom's cooking. I never did have her touch, but I'll give it a try and learn how to cook. It'll help in saving some money," she said, sounding apologetic.

"No, don't worry about it," he said. "Anything's fine with me."

"Well, sure, but you're a growing boy. I can't be feeding you take-out Chinese every time. Mom and Dad say that they'll be sending money every once in a while to help take care of you. I'm thinking about doing some shopping in the morning and we ought to get you some new clothes soon. I know school is a long way off, but might as well get it out of the way when we can."

Losing his appetite, Akira felt horrible for Tomoko, knowing that she must be annoyed of her life being interrupted like this. "I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?"

"For becoming a burden to you."

"Akira, you are not a burden. I decided to take you in, didn't I? I know I've got a lot on my plate right now, but I can manage it. Like I said, Mom and Dad are going to help out."

"Well, if things do get harder on you…I can leave and go back home with Mom and Dad."

She stopped midway with her food hanging away from her mouth and placed it back onto her plate, her eyebrow raised. "What did you just say?"

"I said that I can leave if things become too hard for you. If I do become a burden."

"Akira." He looked up, finding her looking at him intently. "You are not a burden, and you won't become one. I know Mom and Dad were against it at first, and I might not have decided to take you in if I didn't think I can do the job. But, I do know one thing and that is that I don't want you there anymore, having to be constantly bullied like that. Even if it wasn't the only choice, I still think bringing you here is the best one. I'm sure things will be hard for you right now, getting use to a new home, but it'll be only for a little while, and things will be get better. I promise."

"How can you be sure that things will get better?" Akira said, not believing her words.

"It has too."

"Bullshit!"

The room went silent, and Akira looked down at his food, looking just as disgusting as himself. His body convulsing like a tempest forming inside, he shut his eyes to hold back his tears, but they quickly flooded his eyes. Already shunned from his hometown, most likely would never go back home, and in a strange new world, he began to doubt if he could even survive here if people here start to suspect like the people back home did about him.

A little cry escape from his lips and he flung his glasses off of his face and covered his eyes, wetting them with his tears.

"Akira!" Tomoko jumped from her seat and ran towards him, wrapping her arms tightly around and letting him cry on her shoulder. "It'll be okay. I don't know how, but your worst days are already behind you. Yes, you'll still get some bad days in the future, but that doesn't mean you should fear them. As long as you still hold on to that hope, you'll make it through. And, I'll be here to help you out."

Squeezing her tightly, Akira still felt terrified of what the future might hold for him in the new city. "Even if…I might be a little different than most people?"

"There's nothing wrong about it. If you like guys, that's perfectly fine. If you like girls, that's just as fine, as well. I don't care. All I care is that you stay that sweet kid that I've always known."

Pulling away, Akira wiped the last of his tears. "I'm sorry, Tomoko, for acting like this."

"It's fine. I know that this will be scary for you, but, like I said, I'm here to help you out," she said, caressing his cheek and he nodded his head. "And, the name's GoGo."

He let out a short laugh, his lips widening into a smile. "That is such a dumb name," he said.

"At least it's not the worst that I've been given," she said, smiling. Pulling him back in her hug, Akira felt like the three years of separation hadn't dampened their relationship a bit, that they can continued on where it left off.

After the two calmed down, they went back to their dinner, their spirits a little higher while they conversed, mostly on GoGo's ongoing projects at her school as well as what the other students were doing. Fascinated, Akira became curious about it and wondered if he could actually go there and finally see her work. After they finish their food, they ended up playing video games, something that the two had done on a regular basis together before she left home and something that they missed doing. They played fighting games, which Akira was good at, racing games, which GoGo was good at, and a little bit of the new JRPG. Akira was more proficient with it, helping GoGo in beating a high level boss that she had trouble with for some time.

Just after midnight, Akira began to feel tired and decided to call it a day, feeling a little better about himself and his new situation.

"Hey, Akira?" GoGo said.

He looked back at GoGo. "Yeah?" he said.

She looked at the carpet like she was embarrassed of what she might be thinking. "Is it okay if I sleep in your bed with you?"

Raising his eyebrows by the request, the last time that the two slept in the same bed was when he was nine, coming to her whenever he had nightmares. But, he didn't feel anything against her request, maybe a little glad that she brought it up first because he felt a little embarrassed himself in wanting to ask her for the same thing, still wanting some of that comfort.

"Sure," he said, a little smile on his lips.

After the two brushed their teeth, they went to his room, GoGo in her pajama bottom and black tank top, and hopped into bed. Laying on his side, GoGo reached over and hugged him tight from behind and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Night, little bro."

"Night, big sis," he said, feeling his mind, heart, and soul at ease, if only a little bit, while he fell into a slumber, comfortable in his new home.


	3. Chapter III

**Chapter III: Knowing the City a Little More**

It took Akira a moment to realize that he was not in his original room after he woke up from his dreamless sleep, that he was in his new room, in San Fransokyo, in Tomoko's apartment. Or, GoGo as she preferred now supposedly. On his side, he looked around, finding all of his furniture and items with boxes still on the floor, waiting to be unpacked. A hint of sadness still lingered in his heart, but he felt more at peace with himself, remembering his sister's promise that things will get better for him, and he began to believe her.

A light smack on his face interrupted his peace of mind and he turned onto his other side in surprise to find the culprit. A loud snore overturned the silence and he quickly found GoGo sleeping, a loud, croaking sound emanating from her mouth. Shaking his head to wake himself up, he looked at his sister with mild annoyance, but a smile crept onto his lips. Wiping away the sleep from his eyes, he carefully let himself out from his bed as to not wake her up and pulled more of the blanket up to her chin. He gave her quick kiss on the cheek and walked out of the room.

After using the bathroom, he headed for the living room and found the day giving a much different reception then yesterday, the sky cleared of clouds to allow the sun to shine all over the city. A sense of excitement finally blooming inside of him, he went over to the sliding door, opened it, and carefully stepped out onto the narrow balcony with its concrete walls as tall as his shoulders. The cool wind blew surprisingly strong into his face, sending a shiver up his body, but he got used to it immediately and looked out across the horizon at the several tall buildings shimmering in the sunlight. His jaw hanging loose in amazement, he caught what looked like very thing lines extended up from the tops of the skyscrapers and found several different colored blimps floating high above the city like kites. Faint sounds of car horns came from far down below, nearly drowned out by the blowing wind. With a sense of vertigo creeping up on him, he stepped back inside and shut the door.

He looked at the clock and found that it was just past eight. Summer vacation would be starting already and GoGo had already told him that he could just relax until school starts. "We'll get you enrolled soon," she said. "Maybe someplace closer so that you don't have to use the bus." And, already, she was talking about doing school shopping for clothes and supplies. _GoGo really is a great sister_ he thought. She didn't have to take him in, but she did despite having so much work of her own. She did tell him that he didn't need to do anything else, but he felt that he was becoming a free loader and wanted to do more, to help out a bit to ease her load.

"I know, I'll make some breakfast," he said. He hadn't had the chance to tell her, but he learned how to cook from their mom for a while, so he could fill in with that duty.

He entered the kitchen, walking over to the refrigerator and opened the door. He searched for the usual ingredients, only to find four eggs sitting inside of its cardboard carton with the expiration date set in a couple of days. _Might as well use them now_ he thought. A sliver of milk and a quarter of orange juice were left in half gallon jugs, but there were two full cases of soda on the bottom shelf. They definitely need to do some food shopping fast if this was the best GoGo's had and he shut the door in irritation and proceeded with his search.

Three boxes of cereal hid in the top cupboards, but they were all empty. He was thankful to find an unopened box of pancake mix, but one look at the way past due expiration date had him sending it to the overfilled trash. And, that was all he could find for him to make breakfast. "You have got to be kidding me?" Akira said, scratching his head in frustration. "How the heck can she live like this?" With the eggs his only option, he quickly cleaned off one of the soaking frying pans, which, thank God, it was a non-sticking pan, got all of the grime off, and prepare to cook. He adjusted the heat, remembering how his mother had taught him, deciding on sunny-side up.

The first time he tried it, they went through a whole carton of eggs just so he could get it right, and both he and his father had to eat all of those cooked eggs as to not waste them. But, his mother was very patient with him. In fact, she laughed at his expense whenever he messed up by spilling the yoke whenever he tried to pick it up. A feeling of homesickness filled his heart, his eyes stung with tears, but he quickly wiped them away. Taking in a deep breath, he calmed himself, but he really missed his parents and wish that they were here, much like how he missed GoGo, remembering how he didn't want her to go when she first moved away from home to go to college. _I cannot have everything I want, huh?_ he thought.

After the eggs were ready, he carefully placed them on the two plates and set them on the counter on each end and poured two glasses of orange juice. Since there was only a little bit of milk left, he decided to finish it off himself. He spitted it out into the sink once he realized it was whole milk.

He carried one of the plates with him to his room, finding GoGo still sleeping, and held the eggs over her face just underneath her nose. After a few seconds, she sniffed and slowly opened her eyes, looking up at him.

"Morning, GoGo," he greeted her.

"Morning," she said, looking a little confused. She sat up from the bed, her hair in a tussle. She let out a big yawn, stretching out her arms into the air. "What's that?" she pointed at the plate like it was something foreign.

"Eggs," he answered.

She looked at it carefully like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Sunny side-up?"

"Yeah."

"Is Mom here?"

"No. I made it."

She looked at it again, shock written on her face. "No way. You can cook?"

Akira nodded proudly. "Breakfast is ready, but this is all I could find to make."

"What do you mean? There should be a box of pancake mix out there."

"I found it, but it was no good."

"No good? I just bought that."

"When?"

She paused for a few seconds and finally remembered with a small grimace on her face. "Eggs will do."

Entering the kitchen, GoGo took her seat while Akira placed the plate with her food in front of her. "You really cook this?" she asked in amazement.

"Yeah," Akira answered, sitting back to his seat. "Mom taught me how."

"She never taught me."

"Well, she said that you didn't want to when she first offered."

"And, I kind of regret that."

"Well, I can cook for you. It'll save you the trouble of having to learn how and it it's a way for me to earn my keep here."

GoGo shot him a serious glare. "Akira, what did I say about-"

"I know, I know. But, looking around here, you hardly have any food. I imagine that school must be pretty tough on you."

GoGo let out a sigh. "It has its moments."

"So, I don't mind cooking for you. In fact, I want to. I mean, I have to start pulling my weight around here sooner or later, right?"

GoGo seemed to think over the proposition and she gave him a small smile. "If you are willing," she said. She cut into her eggs and took a small bite. "Oh, wow! This is so good!"

"It's just eggs," Akira said, looking at her strangely. "I didn't do anything special with them."

"Do you have any idea when's the last time I had a home-cooked meal here?" She quickly devoured her meal and her orange juice, looking mightily content like she had been blessed. It actually made Akira feel better to know he managed to help her out.

"You know, we really need to do some grocery shopping today," Akira said, serious about his proposal.

"I suppose we can knock that out first before we could have some fun today."

"What are you planning on doing?"

"I said 'We.' _We_ are going to have fun today."

Finishing up the last of his eggs, Akira thought about what she was saying. Having fun with GoGo in a new place, he began to feel enthusiastic about the prospect. He smiled and nodded in agreement with her.

"Great," GoGo said. "Anything you want to do?"

"I don't know anything about San Fransokyo or what it has."

"There's plenty of things you can do."

"Such as?"

She shrugged her shoulders as if it was a frivolous question. "Anything and everything," she answered.

Akira thought on it for a few seconds, but nothing came to mind. "I really don't know. Whatever you want to do, I don't mind."

GoGo, looking unimpressed by his answer, leaned across the table and stared at him with a serious, yet calm expression. "Akira, this is you first time coming here. You should be the one having fun. Whatever you want to do, just say it, and I'll arrange it."

Akira thought harder on it, his mind jumbling with so many ideas until one stood out among the rest. "Is it okay if I check out your school?"

She raised her eyebrow. "Is that what you really want to do?"

"Yeah. I mean, with everything that you've been telling me about, I kinda want to see what it looks like, if it's okay."

She smiled contentiously at him. "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

After dumping their dishes into the sink, they each took their turns in the showers, with Akira washing the dishes while it was GoGo's turn, and got dressed for the day just after nine. They took the long trip down the elevator to the lobby, giving GoGo time to detail their plan of attack.

"The grocery store isn't far, about ten minutes. We get what we need, come back, and take my bike out for a ride to the campus."

"Cool," Akira said, but feeling a little scared by the thought of having to ride on a motorcycle, but he kept it to himself.

Stepping out of the lobby, they went outside to find the sidewalk already filled with people going along with their business without any interest for anybody else but their own. Taking a hold of Akira's hand, GoGo weaved through the countless of pedestrians while Akira tried to avoid bumping into them. He had never seen this many people in such a small area, and with most of them taller than him, it was like walking through a moving forest that he could easily get lost in. Many were in their business suits or skirts with their briefcases in hand while others were in their casual clothing with headphones over their heads. Some rode on bikes, skateboards, or even rollerblades. There was almost like a method to the chaos, but Akira was having a hard time figuring out the pattern, keeping his pace up with GoGo while she gripped on this hand so that he didn't get left behind, no matter what. A couple of times he got bumped by somebody and he tried to apologize to them, but they only give him an odd look, like telling him to get with the program, before they continued on their way.

"Geez, why do they act this this?" Akira asked.

"Some people have to rush to keep themselves busy," GoGo said.

Finally, the sidewalk became less congested and they managed to make it to the store with little worse for wear, at least for Akira. They reached and walked across the half-full parking lot to get to the huge supermarket and, inside the vestibule, Akira spotted a long line of carts and pull the first one free. "We're not buying a lot, just a few things to get us through the week," GoGo said.

"We're nearly out of food," Akira said, taking the cart with him and walked into the building like he was on a mission, ignoring GoGo's protest.

Assigning her to push the cart, they walked down each aisle with Akira dumping food into the cart, slowing filling it up. GoGo held a bored look while she rested her chin on her folded arms over the bar of the cart, looking like she was on the verge of falling sleeping. "Are we done yet?" she pleaded for the hundredth time.

"Almost," Akira said, placing a couple of cereal boxes into the half-full cart.

"You've been saying that for the last half-hour."

"Well, stop asking that question," Akira said, leading down the aisle.

GoGo reached into the cart and pulled out one of the cereal boxes that looked like it was made more for adults than kids. "And, who the hell eats this?" she asked.

"It's good."

"What, no Fruit Loops? Cap'n Crunch? Lucky Charms, your favorite?"

"Not anymore."

An amused look formed on her face. "You've changed," she said.

Another half-hour passed when the two began walking down the final aisle, the cart overfilling beyond its capacity that some of the top items were threatening to fall off. As a way to applaud GoGo's patience, Akira placed a couple of frozen pizzas on top.

"So, how exactly are we to get all of this stuff back home?" GoGo asked. "It's not like we can bring the cart with us."

"I saw some wagons that are on sale up front," Akira answered. "We can get one of them."

"Probably two."

Turning around and walking backwards, Akira looked at her with a winning smile. "I bet this wasn't what you were expected when you decided to take me in, huh?"

GoGo smiled back. "No, but I haven't regretted it yet." The two laughed, and when Akira turned back around, he bumped into something that he nearly fell off from his feet. Straightening himself up, Akira look up to see that he had just bumped into someone while the offended person looked back down at him. "I-I'm very sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going!"

"Oh, it's okay, cutie," the person said in a jovial voice.

Looking at the person more closely, he looked no older than GoGo with his short blond hair, flannel purple shirt and skinny blue jeans along with a small, loop earring hanging from his left ear, looking at Akira with a genuine smile. Akira could feel his cheeks flare up a bit.

"Still, I'm very sorry," Akira said bowing, knowing this his face must had turned beat red with embarrassment. However, he also felt strangely attracted.

"He's quite the gentleman, isn't he?" the man said with a laugh.

"Yeah, he's always like this," GoGo said, pulling up beside Akira and rubbing his hair.

"Hey, Duncan, what's going on?" another voice called out and Akira found another young man walking up with a loaf of bread underneath his arm, having short brown hair and wearing a sports jacket with blue jeans.

"Oh, just had a little run-in, nothing serious," Duncan said. The two shared a kiss with their lips, surprising Akira to see them doing that in public.

"You did apologize, right?" the brown hair man said, looking disapprovingly at Akira.

"Y-Yes, I did! I'm sorry again!' Akira bowed again, his legs shaking.

"Kaoru-chan, don't scare him! He apologized and acted like a true gentleman, unlike some people I know in this city," Duncan said.

"Alright, just making sure. I swear, kids these days don't know their manners," Kaoru said. He took the basket from Duncan's hand and started walk on ahead.

"Oh, don't worry about him," Duncan leaned forward and whispered to Akira. "He's always protective of those he love," he said apologetically.

"Okay," Akira said, his cheeks burning with how close his handsome face was to his. _What's happening to me?_ he thought nervously. _Is it…actually true that I'm…really like that?_

"Don't let this ruin your day, okay, sweetie?" Duncan said, giving Akira a wink. Joining up with his boyfriend, he two men walked away hand-in-hand.

"Kinda cute, huh?" GoGo asked.

"Yeah," Akira answered with a small smile on his face. Realizing what he had just said, he grabbed onto the end of the cart and pulled on it hard. "Let's get the milk, eggs, and bread and we'll be done," he said, his face keeping him warm from the cool aisle.

After they paid for the groceries and the wagons, filling them both up as best they can in the small spaces they provide without having any of their food falling over, they began their way back home, each tugging a wagon behind them. "Geez, you nearly cleaned me out," GoGo said, sounding amused by the fact. "But, at least we won't go hungry for a while and I'll get to enjoy some of that home-cooked meal goodness, at long last."

Akira didn't reply, his mind still back in the store with the couple, with the way they talked to each other and how they shared a kiss. It was obvious that they were dating, but for them to be like that in the open without any shame, it felt unfair to him. Back home, he was seen as a freak because of rumors about him liking guys, which he adamantly denied before, but now wondered how true that really was.

"You okay, Akira?" GoGo asked.

"Huh?" Akira looked up at her, pushing his thoughts back.

"Is something the matter?"

Figuring that he could talk to GoGo about it, trusting her now that he knew that she'd be understanding and that since she had lived in the city for three years, maybe she would know. "I was just wondering…if I could be like that."

"Like what?"

"Like that couple we just met. The two guys."

"Oh, like them? Of course. A sweet, smart, and cute guy like yourself, I'm sure you'll make any guy feel lucky to have someone like you to love."

"And, here, I don't be judged for it?"

GoGo gave him an assuring smile. "You know, I actually learned that San Fransokyo used to act as a safe haven for homosexual and transgender people when the rest of the world was fearful of them, or even hateful. Now, not only is it the most tolerant place for all kinds of people, but it help made the world take notice that they are just as normal as anybody. So, I know that you won't have any problems finding someone to love here."

Smiling, Akira felt like a great weight had been lifted from his heart. "Thanks."

"No problem," she said. "Course, you do need to get over your shyness if you hope to meet someone."

Shooting her a dirty look, GoGo laughed heartily and pulled Akira in for a hug. Akira began laughing as well, feeling more at home in the big city.


	4. Chapter IV

**Chapter IV: Meeting Tadashi**

"Ha, I knew it! We both do have the same heads!" GoGo proudly said, looking at Akira with his new blue motorcycle helmet that covered his entire head with the visor down, hiding his face. He also wore his new black leather jacket along with matching gloves, all fitting him perfectly.

"Feels a bit heavy," Akira said, holding on to the bottom of his helmet like it was pressing down onto his skull.

"Well, it has to, otherwise it wouldn't do its job," she said knocking on the top of the helmet. "Course, we shouldn't have to worry about that since I am an impeccable motorcyclist."

"Don't temp karma!" Akira said worriedly and quickly took off his helmet. Truth be told, he wasn't looking forward to be riding a motorcycle. Seeing how people would ride on those things very fast while looking so unprotected gave him the chills. But, he kept it to himself, knowing that it was the only way to get to her college, as least for her. He thought about making them lunch for the trip, but she offered to buy lunch at the campus, which he begrudgingly agreed.

After putting all of their groceries in their place and the day ready to go into the afternoon, GoGo grabbed her helmet, keys, and jacket and lead outside of their apartment. They took the elevator back down to the lobby and waiting for the second elevator to make its trip back up from the underground parking area.

"How deep below the earth's crust does it actually go?" Akira asked, looking at column of numbers that represent the individual levels that went far into the double digits.

"Quite a ways down. But, it's wider than it is deep and it's a labyrinth. So, don't be surprise if you find a human skeleton down there," GoGo said.

Stepping inside of the elevator, GoGo pressed the 6B button and the car began its descent slowly. Akira quickly realized that the walls around them were made out of glass so he could see the parking area clearly. With each level they passed, he found hundreds, if not thousands, of cars all lined up as far as he could see with the orange glow of the overhead lights covering everything. It was incredible to him that something this big could exist underground.

The elevator stopped at their floor and the two stepped off with GoGo continuing with her guide and they walked down in between the long row of cars, trucks, and vans, each one different in their color, shape, and size that there was no two that were the exact same. It took some time for them to reach the spot where a lone, dark motorcycle stood in the middle of a wide parking space, clearly not meant for it.

"So, where do I sit?" Akira asked apprehensively.

"Right here," GoGo patted on the back cushion. It looked so exposed like he could fall off at the smallest of tilt.

"There's no seatbelts on this thing?"

"No. Ironically, it's actually not safe to be wearing them on a motorcycle."

Akira wasn't sure about that until he imagine himself flipping along with it that convinced him that what she said made sense. As if letting himself to fate, he placed the helmet back onto his head and snapped the buttons, securing it into place. He tried to climb on, but it was a bit high for him. GoGo showed him how to climb on, almost like straddling a horse. Once he sat down, he was surprised to feel how comfortable the seat was, like a soft chair while he leaned back into it. He felt a little secured, but that bit of nervousness still lingered from the anticipation.

GoGo climbed up and started working on the controls. "Place your feet up here," he heard her through the microphone inside of his helmet and followed her instructions. The engines revved up, but it didn't sound as loud as he expected. "You ready?" she asked, sounding like she was looking forward to the moment.

He tried to put on a brave tone into his voice when he said "Yeah."

She kicked up the kickstand and, without warning, the bike shot out of its spot, taking Akira by surprise. He let out a quick yell and immediately wrapped his arms around GoGo's waist. He heard chuckling through the earpiece. "Hang on tight," she said and, with the engine giving off a powerful blast, they propelled down between the lanes of cars and started climbing up the spiraling ramp.

Keeping her speed low and constant, he could still feel the momentum by the tilt while they circle around, the yellow and orange lamps passing them with each ascending level. In no time, they broke out into the daylight, moving onto the streets of San Fransokyo.

They didn't move far before they stopped behind a car at a red light that Akira took the chance to look around him, finding tall skyscrapers all around him, but their apartment building missing. The parking area must be a lot bigger than he imagined.

"Doing okay back there?" GoGo asked.

"I'm fine," he answered, feeling a little confident.

"Good, but wait till we get to the freeway," she said with a hint of teasing fun. "That's the fun part."

Before Akira could say anything, the motorcycle pulled forward with traffic light's permission by turning green and made a sharp left turn. Speeding down the lane, Akira managed to catch a couple of signs flashing by that said that they were heading for the freeway. Squeezing his arms a little tighter around her as if to remind her of who was riding with her, he put his whole trust into his sister and watched with frightful anticipation as they entered onto the ascending ramp, accelerating.

The increasing speed gave him that sense of being on a roller coaster, the rush of air screaming over his helmet, but the sound of the engine still roared above it. Stopping her acceleration, they were still moving very fast. He chanced to look around and felt his fear dissipated and replaced with intrigue and excitement.

They were in the middle of the road with six rows of different vehicles; cars, vans, trucks, and even a couple of tracker trailers all traveling down in a synchronized movement. They scooted across the behemoth shadows of the skyscrapers that lined up close to the overpass and Akira managed to catch much of the city in between them, looking with awe at the spectacle of the city laying out invitingly to him underneath the glowing sun. For the first time since arriving, Akira felt like he was going on an adventure.

He looked at the many cars surrounding them and he caught two kids, a boy and a girl, in a van next to them, watching with excitement painted on their faces. He waved to them and they both waved back enthusiastically.

"This is pretty fun!" Akira said cheerfully.

"I know, right?' she said like she knew already.

"How fast are we going?"

"79 mph."

A daring thought entered his head. "Can you go a little faster?"

"I was hoping you say that!"

The engines revved up and he felt himself being propelled once again, but he welcomed it. They flew passed every car like they were standing still and he laughed joyfully, feeling his troubles and care were being blown away and left behind, riding at the speed of light.

A few more minutes passed until GoGo decelerated and pulled onto their exit. Catching the sign that pointed to the direction of her school, Akira felt a little sadden that the ride was about to come to an end, but it was such a cathartic experience that he felt grateful for it. It took a few more minutes to reach their destination and, pulling into the entrance, he was surprised to see how serene the campus looked with its lush, green scenery of the grass and healthy looking trees with several modern building propped up at different areas with many people walking along the sidewalk. Seeing it reminded him of home that now felt like a world away. Melancholy stung his heart and he hugged his sister tighter, still needing to feel that security.

They pulled up into a parking lot that was reserved only for students and climbed off. Akira pulled off his helmet and revealed to GoGo a huge, winning smile with his hair all ruffled with several strands of them sticking out like electricity had ran through them.

"I knew you'd like it," GoGo said proudly, rubbing his messy hair with a satisfied grin. Hooking her arm around his neck, the two walked across the parking lot, heading for the building straight ahead.

They entered through the doors and walked down the gray, concrete corridor and Akira heard sounds of whirrs, bangs, and a loud crash echoing softly. "This is where I usually spend much of my free time," GoGo said. "No matter what time of the day, or any day for that matter, it's always busy with people who are very passionate about what they do, so we have to learn very quickly and early on to share whatever space we have. Thankfully, because we are so like-minded, we do get along pretty easily." They reached the red double doors and GoGo pushed one of them open to let Akira walk through it first. He took the offer and stepped inside.

The sight before him made him stop in his tracks and he saw what GoGo meant. Many people were crammed together with much of the space allotted to machinery that moved freely like sentient beings, performing human actions like painting, golfing, basketball, Ping-Pong, knitting, just about any kind of activity. It looked as though they were getting ready for the most advance science fair.

"Come on, my work space is over here," GoGo said, guiding Akira through the madness. He continue to observe the many projects and the students didn't seem, or cared, to notice the new arrivals.

Tack boards formed a small area with blueprints tacked onto them, displaying an image of a bike of some kind. Surrounding them were several photographs of him and GoGo when they were younger along with their parents that he couldn't help but look closely at. They were smiling and laughing, having no idea of how their future would turn out until it was too late. It felt simple back then, he thought nostalgically.

"Watch your head," GoGo said. She began turning a crank and he looked up to see something coming down from the ceiling. He stood aside, watching a thin yellow bike hanging from suspenders stopping just a few feet above the floor in front of him, hovering just along his eye line. It look so fragile he thought and the wheels caught his eyes. He looked closely at it and was surprised to see them not physically attached to the frame, just floating all by themselves. With careful curiosity, he waved his hand in between the wheel and frame and a low hum told him that something invisible was at work.

"Can you guess what's going on?" GoGo quizzed him teasingly.

Feeling stumped, he was nowhere as interested in science as her. However, a memory surfaced of him seeing a globe floating in midair in a toy store when he was younger and it was explained to him that magnets at both ends of the frame sort of cancel each other out to give the illusion that it was floating on its own. "Well, if it's not witchcraft, then you are using some sort of magnet."

"Yep," she said, satisfied with his educated guess. "To be specific, the term for this is electromag suspension. It helps reduce friction so that I can go really fast."

"How fast can you make it go?"

"Last time I test run it, I clocked at 132.627 mph," she said, sounding a little monotone like she wasn't all that proud of it.

"Is that too slow for you?" he asked with a teasing smile.

"Yes, it is a little too slow, you little troll," she said, playfully punching him in the arm and the two shared a laugh.

Still perplexed by the strange bike, Akira used his finger on the edge of the wheel and gently spun it, watching it turn solidly without so much a wiggle like it was bolted. _They had to be pretty strong magnets for them to stay on like this_ he thought, which a pondering thought popped into his mind. "Have you ever had them fall off while riding?"

"Nope. They're so strong not even a gorilla can rip them off. Go on, give it a try."

Grabbing ahold of each side of the wheel, he tried wiggling it but it stayed in place, unmovable. He applied a little more force, shaking it hard that the entire bike shook while GoGo watched with an amused look. It still would not budge a millimeter. "Wow, that's something," he said impressed.

"Yep, she's my baby. But…" she pulled the wheel off with ease and threw it like a Frisbee into a pile of discarded disks of different shapes and designs, "she needs a little bit more work."

"Hey, GoGo! Glad to see you decided to grace use with your presence," a voice called out from behind. Akira turned to find a huge black man in a green sweater and work glasses on his face approaching them.

"Just checking to make sure that nobody was stealing anything from it," GoGo answered. "By the way, this is my baby brother, Akira. Akira, this is Wasabi."

"Hey, man. GoGo's told us so much about you," Wasabi said, holding out his gloved hand and Akira accepted it in a handshake.

"Wasabi?" Akira said, confused.

"Long story," the man said with a dismissing wave of his hand.

Forgetting about the odd name, Akira looked behind Wasabi and found a pair of vertical bars. "What are you working on?" he asked.

"Want to see?" he said with an inviting smile.

"Sure."

Guiding him, Wasabi directed Akira to stand behind the yellow line and to not move, especially forward. He waited like he was told and watched Wasabi run around the table, wondering why he didn't just go through the two bars in front. Then, Wasabi picked up an apple and turned to Akira with a smile that seemed like he can easily impress the boy. "Would you like an apple?" he asked.

"Uh, sure?"

He tossed the red fruit into the air and Akira was ready to catch it, but it instantly transformed into several paper thin slices in midair and they fell down like leaves in autumn. One managed to fall into the palm of his hands while an astonished look held onto his face. "How did you do that?"

Wasabi flick up a switch and several green florescent lines appeared in between the two bars. "Laser-induced plasma," the inventor explained. "With a little magnetic confinement for ultra-precision."

It looked so pretty that Akira wanted to touch it, but remembering what happened to the apple made him take a step back away from it. "That's pretty neat," he said with an approving smile.

"Thanks," Wasabi said, looking humbled by the comment.

From behind, Akira heard humming and a tall, thin girl with long blond hair ran passed him, rolling a giant black ball. Looking on with surprise, Akira went up to her, curious as to what she was planning on doing with it. She hopped right in front of it the ball to stop it and he walked into a new area where a whole bunch of vials and beakers were set up on a table, all holding different color liquids inside them.

"Hello," he called out to her.

Bending her body over the metal ball, she sported huge pink glasses and wore ear plugs which he could hear music blaring from them. "OMG!" she squealed in delight and walked around the ball with a big smile. "Are you GoGo's little brother, Akira?" she asked gleefully.

Taken back from her enthusiasm, he nodded with an added "Yes."

"Oh, she has told us so much about you!" she screamed as if she was trying to talk over the loud music that only existed from her ear plugs. Then, to his surprise, she gave him a quick kiss on each of his cheeks.

"Um, nice to meet you, too," he said, incredulous by the unique greeting. "What do you have there?"

"400 pounds of tungsten carbine!"

Deciding not to ask what those two words mean, he pressed on like he knew what she was talking about. "What are you going to do with it?"

"You really want to know?" she asked eagerly. He nodded with interest, giving her permission to pull him to her lab table. "You are going to love this! A dash of perchloric acid, a smidge of cobalt, a hint of hydrogen peroxide, superheated to 500K and…" with a paint sprayer, a pink cloud drifted over the entire black ball and it magically turned…pink. "Ta-Da!"

"That's…kind of cool," Akira said, trying to sound a little enthusiastic as a way to be polite.

"Oh, we've haven't gotten to the best part," she said, her smile still as big like she was hiding some secret she couldn't wait to reveal. "Go on, touch it," she pushed him forwards towards the pink ball. Humoring her, he walked up to it and gently poked it with the tip of his finger.

It exploded into a big, pink dust cloud and Akira stood with a gaping mouth in surprise, his face, clothes, hair, and glasses covered in the pink soot. "Whoa," he said and a big smile appeared on his face. "That is so cool!"

"I know, right?" she said. "Chemical metal embrittlement!"

"Nice one, Honey Lemon," GoGo complimented while she and Wasabi walking up to them.

Akira looked at the tall girl after he finish wiping his glasses to free it of the pink dust. "Honey Lemon? Who the heck comes up with the nicknames?"

"That would be Fred's doing," Wasasbi answered.

"Who's Fred?"

"Did someone call me?"

Turning towards a voice that sounded a bit muffled, Akira came face-to-face with a monster. He let out a yelp as jump back away from it.

"Whoa, easy dude. Didn't mean to scare ya like that," the voice said and the hideous face lifted up to reveal a normal human head underneath. Feeling a little silly, Akira walked up to the person in costume. "So, you GoGo's lil' bro? Sup' man? Fred's the name," the shoulder-length hair man with a beanie said, holding out a fist, which was a claw and Akira lightly bumped it.

"So, what do you do here?" Akira asked.

"Oh, by day, I'm the school mascot, but by night…I'm also the school mascot."

"I mean, what's your major?"

"Oh, I'm not a student here. But, I am a major science enthusiast. In such, I've been trying to get Honey Lemon to make me where I can turn into a fire-breathing dragon, but she said that isn't 'scientific,'" he said with his claws gesturing quotes.

"It's not, really," Honey Lemon said defensively.

"Okay," Akira said and stop listening while Fred started talking about eating an invisible sandwich. He looked up at GoGo quizzically and she only shrugged her shoulders.

"We pretty much treat him like a pet puppy dog, but we try not to indulge him," she said. "But, he's a cool guy in the end."

A loud bang echoed in the room, catching everyone's attention. They turned to find a young man marching towards the group with a sulking look on his face.

"Yo, man, how's the project going?" Fred called out.

"TO HELL!" the man yelled. He marched through the double red doors, shoving them out of the way to leave behind an entire room full of surprised people standing speechless by the emotional display and began talking amongst themselves about what just happened.

"Oh, dear," Honey Lemon said worriedly. "I guess it didn't go as well again. But, I've never seen him act so upset like that before. He's usually so optimistic."

"Well, given how much trouble it has given him all this time, I'm impressed that he didn't blew up until now," Wasabi said, looking just as worried.

Akira stared at the red doors while they closed and an impulse inside of him made him want to chase after the frustrated young man. Without saying anything, he ran past GoGo and headed for the exit. He stepped outside of the workshop just in time to find the door leading outside shutting and he ran down the hall in hopes of catching up with him. He wasn't sure exactly why he was chasing after him, but seeing how frustrating he looked made him feel empathic and even a little worried. Looking through the glass window on the door, he found the young man sitting on the steps, his head down like he was exhausted. Stepping outside carefully like trying not to scare away a cat, Akira made his way down the steps and stood in front of the man.

The man held his head up with his fists, his elbows propped on his knees and his cap nearly hiding his face, but Akira can see a large frown on his lips, looking very dejected. Slender in body build compared to Wasabi's bulky frame, he still looked strong. His clothing made him look almost conservative with his dark brown dress pants and jacket with a sweater vest underneath it, but his cap and sneakers offset his appearance. Then, the young man looked up at Akira as if to realized that he wasn't alone and Akira felt his heart skipped a beat by the sight of the handsome face looking at him, even while the young man didn't look amused by Akira's presence.

"What do you want?" the dejected man asked.

"Um…just seeing how you are doing," Akira said, feeling embarrassed by the fact that he did followed a complete stranger for no realreason. "You looked really angry back there."

"Understatement of the century."

Silence fell onto them for a moment and Akira decided to continue with the conversation. "So, what is it that you were working on?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"I mean I'm not working on that piece of shit anymore! I quit, it's over! Kaput!"

Feeling that he might need to handle it gingerly, he decided to go along with it. "Okay, what _was_ it that you were working on?"

The young man raised an eyebrow, staring at Akira more intently. He didn't look as irritable, but he looked confused. "Why are you asking me about it? Are you interested in coming here in the future?"

"No. Just curious about it," Akira answered truthfully.

Letting out a sigh, he shrugged his shoulders like he was willing to play along. "I was working on a robot that would help people with their medical needs. I call him 'Baymax.'"

"Is that like come kind of live-in nurse?"

"Something like that," the young man said, looking more even-tempered. "It started off as a labor of love that slowly turned into a nightmare since the beginning of last semester." He paused and an ironic smile appeared and let out a matching laugh. "He had so many glitches that I have been trying to fix, but like a run-down car, when one problem gets fixed, a new one quickly follows behind."

"How many times have you tried to fix it?"

"Counting the last one, eighty-five."

"Wow. You're really dedicated," Akira said impressed.

"Well, I've ran out of it now," he said, a deep frown on his lips while he hung his head in as if in shame.

"Yeah, I guess know how that is like," Akira said, "For the longest of time, I've wanted to try drawing comics, but, for some reason, I can't seem to get the hang of it. First off, just trying to come up with a story to tell is just way too difficult. Then, I have to come up with the characters, their motivations, the plot, the settings. Then, I have to have the right software and the first one I bought was super buggy. While I was trying to work on my character models, it crashed on me and I lost everything and I gave up. I've hand drawn it ever since then, but it is so time consuming and I'm starting to think it isn't working. The action scene look stupid, the poses and expressions, I feel, aren't right, along with so many other problems. So, I'm thinking about scraping it, but I don't want to, not after all the work I put into it, but I feel that maybe I can salvage it somehow. I just don't know."

A little smile formed on the man's lips and he looked up at Akira. "Yeah, that does sound like a pain. The first time I tested it out, it was going fine, but then Baymax's microphone started to malfunction and the sound test nearly made me go deaf. Then, another time, he nearly went berserk and almost took my head off when one of his arms went off like a balloon he said laughing and Akira smiled. "But, the biggest fail that happened was when he caused a blackout that took out half the campus. At first, I thought I was going to be expelled when Professor Callaghan and the president both came to talk to me once they found out where it originated. Thankfully, they were completely understanding about it, saying it does happen every once in a while when students work hard on their projects." The two laughed and Akira watched him while the man relaxed a bit and became more laidback. He took his cap off and rubbed his short, black hair and Akira found an even more handsome man. His cheeks flaring up, he mentally slapped himself out of his daze, but his heart pounded in his chest that he could hear it inside of his head. _What's wrong with me?_ he thought.

Replacing his cap back onto his head, the young man stood up, his smile becoming prominent, making him even more handsome. "Man, that helped a lot. I feel much better now. Thanks, man," he said extending his hand out in gratitude.

"Oh, no problem," Akira said, taking the hand nervously. It felt strong, yet gentle. His face burned and a silly smile formed on his face. "Um, I'm Akira."

"Akira?" the young man said, looking surprise. "You wouldn't be GoGo's little brother, are you?"

"Yes, I am."

"She did mentioned about bringing you here to live from now on. She told us of what happened. I'm really sorry, man."

"It's okay," Akira said, not wanting to focus on it. "So far, I'm liking the city."

"That's good. You know, I also have a younger brother. Same age as you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but…" he stopped, looking unsure if he should reveal more. "Eh, right now, he's off doing his own thing. Name's Tadashi Hamada."

Akira looked at him with surprise. "Is that you're real name?"

Tadashi gave a confused look and started to chuckle. "Oh, the whole nicknames thing, right? Yeah, I didn't get the honor of having one from Fred."

"Well, good, because that's a good name."

"Thanks, man. You've got yourself a cool name yourself."

A smile beamed on Akira's face, a sense of excitement rushing over him. He felt very comfortable being around Tadashi for some reason. Maybe it's the fact that he didn't seem at all judgmental about Akira even after knowing of his recent history. It made him feel accepted.

"Hey, Akira, you hitting on Tadashi?" GoGo called out from the door, looking on with a teasing smile while Akira got kicked out of his daydream.

"Hey, it's more than I've ever gotten in all my entire life," Tadashi called back. He wrapped his arm around Akira's shoulder and, being pressed up to the man's body, Akira's heart raced and his face flushed red. He never had someone else outside of the family hold him like this. _It feels…really nice_ , he thought. "You want to check out Baymax?" Tadashi asked, looking at Akira with a friendly and inviting smile.

"Sure," Akira said.

The two went back inside of the building, with Akira enjoying Tadashi's touch. It felt like something grand was within his reach and he concluded that coming to live in San Fransokyo had been a good thing after all.


	5. Chapter V

**Chapter V: Discovering Himself**

Akira couldn't hear a single word that was being said by Tadashi. He knew that the college student was going over the inner workings of his singular project, Baymax, explaining the robotics and scientific know-how of it all and, while Akira wouldn't understand much of it anyhow, he knew it was rude of him to not pay any attention. However, at the same time, Tadashi did hold his undivided attention. It was his handsome face that was getting in the way of his selective hearing. Propped up by armrest of the couch with his arms underneath his chin, a goofy smile was plastered on his lips, his eyes milking every image of the beautiful college student.

"You with me so far?"

"Huh?" Akira woke up and realized with horror that he had been caught daydreaming while Tadashi looked straight at him. _Oh, crap_ he thought, feeling that he just offended Tadashi by looking disinterested in his hard work that he had dedicated himself to. "Um…" he tried to say something, but the words were blocked up in his throat. He dropped his eyes to the floor and his face burned, ashamed and embarrassed.

However, he heard Tadashi laughed and Akira looked up to find the man of his dreams holding a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it," Tadashi said, taking off his cap and running his hand through his black hair, something that Akira like to try himself. "I know that you aren't into this sort of thing, so I should be the one apologizing for boring you like this."

"Oh, no. I'm the one that should be apologizing," Akira said, feeling even guiltier.

Then, Tadashi walked up to Akira and stood in front of him. He bent forward at the waist and stared straight into the surprised boy's eyes, their noses just inches away. Akira's heart accelerating, feeling himself being swoon by those gorgeous blue eyes while Tadashi's lips turned a sly smile. "I think," Tadashi began, "that you were thinking about something else."

His face burning hotter, Akira, shutting his eyes tightly so that he wouldn't see Tadashi's possible disgusted reaction, helplessly nodded.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Y-You," he answered. It came out on its own like he just wanted to just get it over with.

"Me?" Tadashi said, sounding very surprised. "Why would you be thinking about me?"

His mind racing, his mouth began moving on its own and his voice sounded the words. "Because…you're very nice to me and…v-very handsome. I…really like you. A lot."

His heart wanted to break out of his chest it pounded so hard. He wanted to die if it would only get rid of the embarrassment and loathing he held inside for himself. Tears wetted his eyes, threatening to fall out, but he tried to hold them back so not to show his inherited weakness in front of the man that he now admitting to have fallen for.

A slight touch on the bottom of his chin woke him from his thoughts and his head lifted up carefully so that he was looking back at Tadashi. He was smiling at him and his face moved in closer.

Their lips touched and Akira felt all of his nervousness washed away, replaced only with a new feeling of desire. He moved himself closer to deepen the kiss, wanting to taste the man more. His tears finally left his eyes, but they were for pure happiness.

He wrapped his arms around Tadashi's neck and pulled himself closer to the other male. His mouth opened, allowing Tadashi's tongue to slip inside and roam about. It surprised Akira by how rough Tadashi was being, even a little frightened when Tadashi start to push him backwards onto the couch, but he felt more exhilarated by it and place his whole trust onto the man, letting him to take over his young body. With Tadashi laying on top, shockwaves passed through his torso and nether regions and Tadashi, being patient with the young boy, carefully placed his kisses on the boy's face.

Then, Akira felt Tadashi's hands sneaking underneath his jacket, his coxing fingers snaking across his bare skin. It was ticklish across his stomach and over his chest where Tadashi caught his nipples in a pinch of his fingers, fiddling with them that they stood erect. Leaving his face, Tadashi found the jacket's zipper and, with his teeth, pulled it all the way down until it completely separated, opening the front to show Akira's new gray T-shirt with the college logo printed on the front. The man massaged the boys chest and Akira moaned while he struggled out from his jacket. After he did, Tadashi took the bottom of the boy's shirt and pulled it over Akira's head. He tossed it away like it was garbage and stared at the bare-chested boy. Having been skinny all his life, Akira had recently started working out in the hopes of impressing Tadashi one day. He knew that there wouldn't be any results in such a short time and he felt a little ashamed about his body.

"Beautiful," Tadashi whispered in awe and he leaned forward to taste the teen's body.

Akira's body convulsed by the wet feel of the man's tongue. His insides swirled around like a whirlpool and his skin tickled by the feel of the warm breath pouring onto his cool skin. He grabbed one of Akira's nipples into his mouth and suck on it gently, it's electric touch forcing a small moan to escape from the boy's mouth. When Tadashi pinched it with his teeth, it surprised him, but it felt good while his breathing became laborious.

His lower half felt tighter, especially around his groin area and the sound of his belt ringing and the loosening of his pants told Akira that Tadashi was going after it. Even if he wanted to, he didn't have the mindset or the energy to protest, letting the man to proceed. Tadashi pulled his pants down, trapping his legs while it all bundled over his shoes, leaving a mostly naked boy in his blue boxer shorts. Moving his hand over the growing bulge of his groin, Tadashi snuck his fingers in between the opening slit and gripped the boy's erecting penis. Whimpering and shivering with fright and anticipation, Akira watched helplessly while Tadashi pulled it out, exposed and hardened, and brought it into his mouth.

He never felt anything like it before while the older man played him with his tongue, bobbing his head, taking in more of him, encouraged by Akira's sounds of pure pleasure. Paralyzed, unable or unwilling to fight back, Akira tried to hold back but felt something ready to be release and gripped into Tadashi's hair while Tadashi continued devouring him. It felt excruciatingly incredible and, like a dam bursting inside, he felt a big released flow from him and he fell onto the couch, fatigue with his heavy breathing caused by the most amazing experience of his entire life.

"Akira, wake up!"

Opening his eyes, Tadashi had completely disappeared and he found himself staring up at the white ceiling, realizing that he was no longer in the laboratory at college but in his own room.

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty, you don't want to miss your first appointment with Dr. Arendelle."

Turning his head, he found GoGo looking at him from the side of his bed, her hands on her hips while holding a raised eyebrow. _It was…a dream?_ he thought drearily. He sat up and moved his head through his puffed up hair while he let out a big yawn.

"Geez, you're usually the early riser," GoGo said. "And, what's that on your hand? Is that…"

"Hmm?" Akira turned to his sister to find her covering her mouth with her hands.

"Oh, my God," she said, sounding like she was trying to contain her laughter.

"What?"

"You must have had some dream last night," she said, giving him a big, sly smile.

He felt something slimy on his hand and noticed something damp from underneath his blanket. He lifted it up and found a large wet spot right in the middle of his groin of his blue pajama pants and memories of his health class he took in school suddenly replayed.

GoGo took control of her laughter. "You need to hurry and get clean up. We have to leave in about forty minutes so we can beat the traffic," she said and proceeded to pull the blanket off of him. However, Akira slammed his arms down over the blanket to keep himself covered up while his face burn hot. "Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It just goes to show that you are a healthy boy, that's all. Happens to everybody."

"Yeah, okay," he said nodding. "Just…can you please leave me be?"

"Alright," she said and turned to leave the room. "Just make it quick in the shower. We'll get going right after breakfast.

"Sure," Akira said.

After she closed the door behind her, Akira let out a sigh and carefully removed the blanket off of him and folded it up, reminding himself that he need to wash it as soon as he returned. He removed the bed sheets as well and went for a fresh change of clothes from his drawer.

A week had passed since he moved to San Fransokyo and his transitioning to the lifestyle of the big city was going better than he hoped. Course, he didn't get the chance to explore the city, being distracted by his desire to see Tadashi whenever he went along with GoGo to the college. So far, he had only just hung around the man's laboratory, watching him work on Baymax, a big, white, plushy robot that remined Akira of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man from _Ghostbusters_.

Much of the time, Tadashi would talk more about himself, from his history of his project, his studies in medicine from his online courses, and, lately, his personal life. He mentioned his parents who had passed away several years ago, his aunt who runs a bakery shop in the downtown area far from the metropolitan where Akira and GoGo lived, and his younger brother, who, to Akira's surprise, had already graduated from high school at the age of thirteen last year. Apparently, he's a super genius, having an IQ of over 200. Curious, Akira asked what he was doing, but Tadashi just shrugged his shoulders and said "Doing his own thing." Akira suspect that whatever the younger brother was doing, Tadashi did not approve of it, but he let the matter drop.

Other than that, Akira felt welcomed by Tadashi and the other people there, all treating him like a valued guest. He felt comfortable being around him and sometimes even miss him whenever he was away. And, that part was what was making him feel more nervous about the relationship with each passing day. He swore that with more time he spend with Tadashi, the more he felt himself being drawn to the man, and it was beginning to remind him of what happened before that led to his exile from his home. He wasn't sure if it meant to be romantic, but after that crazy dream he just had, he wasn't sure about it anymore.

But, even if that was the case, Akria was smart enough to know that it would never work. First off, there was the significant age difference with Tadashi a college student and Akira going to high school after summer vacation. Not to mention the issue of Tadashi's preference. Did he even like guys?

 _Probably not_ Akira thought. In fact, he wasn't one hundred percent of the concept himself. He knew that he like Tadashi but did that meant that he was gay after all? And, what about with what happened back home, with him? Did Akira like him like that? There were so many questions that he wanted answers for and he wondered how he would be able to obtain them. Would this Dr. Arendelle help him?

After he took his shower and put on his clothing, a simple black and white plaid shirt and blue jeans, figuring the he ought to look nice for his appointment, out in the kitchen he found GoGo placing a bowl and spoon on the table counter with few boxes of cereal for his choosing. There wasn't enough time to cook anything so it would have to do. Pouring himself a bowl and with milk, he began digging in.

"So, are you excited?" GoGo asked.

"What? About my visit to Dr. Arendelle?" Akira asked.

"Yeah."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I…don't know, actually. Am I supposed to get excited about seeing a psychiatrist?" he asked, almost rhetorically.

"Do you _not_ want to go?"

"I don't mind. I know you, Mom, and Dad talked about it. And, you mentioned that the college can cover it since you are, technically, my guardian."

"True that we can do it, but I'm wondering if it's something that you want to do. I don't want to be forcing you to go if you are uncomfortable about it. Even the doctor herself said that I shouldn't be forcing you to, said that she much rather have you come to her on your own terms."

"No, I can go since you went through the trouble. Besides…I think I really need it."

Figuring that it was the end of the conversation, the two continued eating in silence until they finished.

After some last-minute touches, they left the apartment and took the familiar route to the underground parking area with the elevator. Riding down, Akira began to feel the anxiousness for the upcoming visit. GoGo, like she had sensed it, pulled the younger boy closer in a hug. "You're a little nervous about it?" she asked.

"Yeah," Akria said.

"I did have a long chat with her over the phone the other day and she sounds very nice. I'm sure that you'll like her."

He nodded in acknowledgement, but he still felt agitated of the meeting.

A few minutes later, they were out on the streets in the middle of the city, a complete change of pace from their usual trip to the college. GoGo took her time going down the congested streets, passing countless traffic lights before one had to turn red and they had to stop to let hundreds of people cross in front of them. It gave Akira some few seconds to look up at the huge skyscrapers, finding only a small area of blue in the spaces between the tall cubes. It felt a little constricting, like the buildings were closing in on him, and he hugged his sister for some security.

"After you are done with the appointment, we'll head out for the mall for your eye exam at the optometrist and get you some new glasses. After that, we can just hang out there for the rest of the day. Sounds good to you?"

"Okay," he said. In truth, he wanted to see Tadashi again, but GoGo said that he wanted to take a day off from her work so he kept it to himself.

"Is there something else you want to do instead?"

"No. The mall's fine."

The light turned green and they continued down the street. It took another twenty minutes before they pulled from the street and proceeded down into a basement parking lot, staying on the first level. After they parked, they took the elevator up and reach their destination on the tenth floor. Walking through the stained-glassed door that had the doctor's name on front, the first thing that welcomed them was a soothing tune playing on the intercom, if a bit jovial. Akira listened closely to the lyrics and the person singing was talking about all the different things one can do in summer, which he found a bit odd given the area gave off a wintery feel with its bluish interior design, making it feel cool.

Making their way to the front desk, they found a young woman with braided red hair, each over her shoulders, and freckles on her cheeks. She had a green, summer dress, almost European looking, and she wore a big smile on her face like she had met a new friend.

"Hello," she greeted them excitedly. "How can I help you?"

"We're here for Akira Tomogo's 10:30 appointment with Dr. Elsa Arendelle," GoGo said.

"Of course, we've been expecting you. Hold on just one second," the woman said and went for the phone, picking it up and pressing the button on the dial. Akira found the woman's nametag on the counter and it read "Anna Arendelle." _Is she related to the doctor?_ he wondered. "Hey, Elsa, Akira Tomogo is here for his initial appointment. Alrighty, will do." She placed the phone back down onto the receiver. "She's ready to see you now."

"Thanks," GoGo said. "I'll wait out here while you go talk to the doc. Take as long as you need, okay?"

"Alright," Akira said, trying not to sound as nervous as he did now. With one last ruffle of his hair from GoGo, Akira followed Anna further down the corridor. Twin double doors lay at the end of the hall and he figured it to be his final destination.

"Nervous?" Anna asked him.

"A little," Akira answered.

"You know, I think it is really sweet of your sister to be taking care of you like this. It reminds me a lot of my older sister."

"She didn't have to do it, taking me in," Akira said. "I can't help but think that she believes that there wasn't any choice in the matter."

"Well, it looks like she's wouldn't have it any other way and I can see that she truly cares for you, so you should feel very lucky."

"Yeah."

They reached the double doors and Anna knocked on it a few times. "Come in," a voice called from behind.

Opening the door, Akira found the room was also blue in color; the walls, the carpet, the curtains over the windows, and even the furniture to some degree. Hanging from walls he found framed pictures, some with Anna and a very beautiful woman, from when they were kids to present day along with diplomas from schools that the doctor had attended, all very prestigious looking, making the doctor seem so qualified.

The window held the Golden Gate Bridge spanning across the bay in the distance within its view. Sitting just below, a large wooden desk with a very beautiful young woman sitting behind it, with impossibly white hair tied up in a single braid, working diligently on her computer. He instantly recognized her as the other woman from the pictures hanging on the wall and she wore a blue business suit and skirt, making her look very professional, but there was this feeling of calmness about her that he couldn't describe. Stopping in front of the desk, Akira felt like he was about to meet a queen. The woman looked up from her work and gave them a smile that seemed to warm the room.

"Hello, Akira," the white-haired woman said.

"Hello, Dr. Arendelle," he said, giving her a small bow. The two women giggled and he wondered if he had done something wrong.

"Your sister warned us that you are polite to a fault," the doctor said. "In here, we go by first name basis. My name is Elsa," she said and held out a hand to him. He took and they shook.

"Would you like me to bring something to drink?" Anna asked.

"Akira?" Elsa redirected the question.

"Um, no, thank you," he said.

"That'll be all, Anna."

With a wink to him for good luck, Anna turned and left the room, closing the doors behind her. The two of them alone, Elsa got up from her seat and stepped away from her work, motioning Akira to follow her. She led him to two chairs sitting rather far on the other side of the room with an aquarium in the back, holding many colorful fishes while they swim around contently.

They sat down opposite from each other and Akira could see by their position that the two were looking straight at one another. Interlocking his fingers into a death grip over his knees, he felt unsure about how this meeting was supposed to go. However, for some reason, there was a level of trust he felt that he could give to this woman even though they'd just met. There must be something about her smile that felt real, like she was genuinely interested in him and in what he might had to say.

"So, how are you liking San Fransokyo thus far?" Elsa asked. "A very different change of scenery, I'm sure."

"It sure is," he said easily. "I've never been to a city before. It's so big."

"It can be very intimidating, moving to a big city. My sister, Anna, and I moved here ourselves four years ago, hoping to start our lives anew. It wasn't easy transitioning when you have lived in a much smaller town all your life, where it felt that it has so much more room and easier to breath. Anna even got herself lost for nearly the entire day that I had to call the police. But, soon, we managed to acclimate to the hustle and bustle and, sure enough, we both fell in love with the city."

Listening to her, Akira felt more relaxed in the woman's presence and he leaned back into his chair, letting himself to be more comfortable. There was something in her voice that feel really kind and non-judgmental while she continued to smile at him. There didn't seem to be any tricks to it, that the two were having a genuine conversation.

"So, where did you originally came from?" Elsa asked.

"Bowling Green, Kentucky. I've lived there all my life," he said. Then, his stomach turned and spun like it was riding on a roller coaster. Grabbing onto his abdomen, he thought that he might vomit.

"Are you alright?" Elsa asked, looking concerned.

"I…I don't know," he said, little tears stinging his eyes.

"Homesick?"

"I…guess so."

While she still held on to her smile, he eyes narrowed, looking more serious. "Your sister has informed me of what occurred in your hometown that caused your family to make the painful decision of sending you here to live, in hopes of starting a new life for yourself."

"I figured as much."

"When you were told about this, about you moving here to live with your sister, what was your initial reaction?"

Akira only shrugged his shoulders.

"You must have some sort of opinion about it. Did you even have a say about the whole matter?"

"No."

"So, you let them choose for you?"

"What can I say to them? They didn't want me to go to school anywhere near there, thinking that people would just bully me, with word of the whole thing having travelled pretty far out. We've even gotten threats on the phone, all telling us not to send me to any schools if they wanted me to live. I thinks it's pretty obvious that I was no longer welcome there, even if it was all done for laughs."

Elsa went silent for a bit, staring at him like she was studying him. "Did you want to leave?"

Letting out a sigh, Akira slumped in his chair. "No, I didn't want to leave."

"Why is that?"

"I was scared. I've never travelled far from my hometown, maybe just a few hour's drive out, that's it. Plus, I've wondered if it would even make any difference."

"In what way?"

"Would people treat me the same way wherever I go?"

She paused for a few seconds. "What were your thoughts about your parents when they told you that you were to be leaving them?"

He paused, unsure if he wanted to answer because it would be admitting to himself, but he felt that he can trust her with his secret. "That…that they didn't want me anymore."

"Do you still believe that?"

"No," he said and wiped away a small tear from his eye before they could fall from behind his glasses. She offered her handkerchief and he accepted it, using it to wipe away more tears ready to drop.

"Have you talk to them recently?"

"Yeah, a couple of days ago. They said that they are doing fine. They mentioned that they are planning on coming here to visit sometimes before summer vacation ends, even staying for a few days."

"I bet you are looking forward to that."

"Yeah."

The two went into a comfortable silence, allowing Akira some time to get himself to calm down. It did felt nice to actually get it off of his chest.

"How would you describe your time in school?" Elsa asked.

"Uneventful. Before…it happened," Akira said.

"Would you call yourself a good student?"

"Yeah, I get mostly A's and B's in my classes."

"Do you have a favorite class?"

"Art. I feel much more free in that class than any other. But, I like history, as well."

"That's understandable," Elsa said. "Did you have any friends?"

"No. I never could make any friends at school."

"Why is that?"

"I…feel nervous whenever I'm with other people that I don't know. At least, whenever I'm all by myself."

"Do you not like being with other people?"

"It's…not that I don't like people. Funny thing is, I actually want to interact, but…"

"But what?"

"…I don't know. I just…feel scared."

"What are you afraid of?"

"…I guess…of not being liked."

A pause hung over the room and Akira looked at Elsa while she looked as though she was pondering, rubbing her chin with her thumb and forefinger with an indifferent look. "Was that a weird answer?" he asked.

"No," she said. "Sorry, I was just thinking about of how I was, also, the same way when I was your age. I kept to myself throughout my school days, never made any friends while Anna was the girl that everyone loved. I was a bit of a recluse back then."

"Really?" Akira said, his eyes wide with surprise. Given how beautiful she is, he would have thought that she'd be a popular girl in her own school.

"Yep," she said good-humorously. "High school wasn't all that fun for me. I always had this very blond hair that look almost snow white that all the kids call me an old lady. Video games were only escape. I played a lot of _Final Fantasy_. Are you a gamer yourself?"

"Yeah. And, I love _Final Fantasy_."

She smiled teasingly at him. "I bet you've only played the later ones."

"No, I've played all of the numbered games, besides the MMO's. My very first one I played was _IX_ , when I was eight and bought and played the rest the next couple of years. Now, I played each of them at least once each year."

"On the count of three, name your favorite title. Ready? 1, 2, 3!"

" _VII_!" they both shouted out and shared a compatible laughter. "It's great to find someone as young as you who's into those games. I thought every kid would only be interested in _Harry Potter_ or _Star Wars_."

"I never could get into them. They feel too…hammy."

She giggled at his answer. "Well, we're getting off topic here. The point I was trying to make is that you being afraid of people not liking you is a very common fear. Humans are social creatures and we want to feel accepted by our peers. So, there is nothing odd about your answer. And, you did manage to make a friend, correct?"

Feeling tense, knowing where it was going, Akira nodded. "Yes," he said.

She nodded in acknowledgement. "How did that come about?"

"We were both in the same art class, but we didn't talk to each other until this past spring when he asked me for help with his work. He was passing along in the class just fine and he was a good enough artist, so I didn't understand why he would ask for my help, and I still do. But, in the next couple of days, he still asked for my help and…we started talking about other things.

"He's pretty popular in school, played on the basketball team. So, it was quite strange to me to be talking to him, but he was very friendly and I liked him for it."

"Did you two ever hang out outside of art class?"

"No. In fact, he would just ignore me outside of class. I wanted to greet him whenever we walk pass each other in the halls or at lunch, but he would act like I didn't even exist. I'm pretty sure that he even averted his eyes a couple of times if I ever got close to him. It was only in art class that he would even acknowledge me. He does surround himself with his friends, which he had a lot of, and he never invited me to anything."

"How did you feel about it? Were you fine with this arrangement?"

"Well, I was just glad that somebody outside of my family actually showed some interest in me. But, after a while, I guess I was feeling…a little greedy. I wanted to hang out with him outside of school, but I couldn't say anything to him. I thought that maybe he didn't want anything to do with me, that maybe he was just using me as a way to pass the time in art class."

"Well, if he's taking the energy to speak with you, I think it's perfectly reasonable for you in wanting to hang out with him outside of class."

"Well, later on, he did invite me to his home one day."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "He did?"

"Yeah."

"What for?"

"Just to hang out, that's what he said."

"Was it just the two of you?"

"Yeah. I thought that he would have his other friends there as well as his parents, but when I got there, he was the only one home. Honestly, I was glad that he didn't have his other friends there. We played video games for a couple of hours. We had such a great time. I never had that much fun ever since GoGo left."

"GoGo?"

"Oh, that's my sister's nickname. She insisted that I call her that now."

"Okay," Elsa said, smiling.

"Then, later on, he offered me a drink of his dad's beer."

Akira went silent, a little afraid of pressing forward. "And, then what happened?" Elsa asked.

Taking in a deep breath, Akira continued. "I didn't want it at first, but I took it without any questions so that he wouldn't think I was some wuss. I drank the whole thing, even though I hated the taste. Then, he offered me more and I accepted it. He had some himself while I had more that I became drunk.

"And, that's when it happened."

"What happened?" Elsa asked.

"I…don't remember much, to be honest, but I do remember actually kissing him, right on the lips."

"You kissed him?"

Akira nodded and dipped his head down to stare at the floor.

"How did he react?" she asked.

"I'm pretty sure that he just shoved me out of the door."

"Pretty sure? So, you don't remember that part?"

"Yeah. I made it back home, snuck to my room and fell asleep."

A pause hung over them, Akira too afraid to move his head to look at the woman, wondering what she might be thinking of him.

"Akira," she said, "I want to let you know that I am not here to judge you, okay? I only want to help you figure you what it is you are feeling and I can see that you have a lot of questions about yourself. And, everything you say will stay in this room. Nobody will know what you say to me, not even your sister, without your consent. So, I hope that you can trust me in letting me know what you are thinking and feeling, okay?" Akira looked up at Elsa and found her giving him an encouraging smile. "Before we continue with your story, I am curious about what you did, giving him a kiss? Did you form any feelings for him during the time that you've known him?"

"I…I've been wondering about that ever since," Akira said. "All I know is that I just want to be with him more."

"Have you even thought about dating?"

"No. I've never actually thought about it at all."

"Do you want to know what I think happened?" she asked, and Akira nodded, wanting to know. "This is just my professional opinion, but I think that you may have never really felt all that lonely because you had your sister, even though you never make any friends and you probably felt awkward around different people. But, as soon as she left home for college, even though you still have your parents, it isn't enough for you and you become more insecure about yourself so you shut yourself off, but you long for that human interaction that you witness in school.

"So, when he first talked to you, you were happy. But, when he seemed to show disinterest in you outside of class, you began to feel that loneliness once again. I bet you even feel envious of his friends who get to hang out with him openly. As you said, you wanted to tell him that you wanted to become one of his friends, but you were afraid that he'll never think of you the same way. You didn't want to lose whatever it is you had so you convinced yourself that you were content with the whole situation. Am I right, so far?"

Akira nodded instinctively, a surprise look on his face. It sounded so right to him. "My guess is that your feelings of loneliness born a sense of wanting for him and, on a subconscious level, you may have developed some form of actual feelings for him during that time period."

"Now that you mentioned it," Akira said. "I did feel happy whenever I'm with him in art class. But…does that really mean that I'm…gay?"

"Well, I suppose, technically, that is correct. And, since we are now on this subject, tell me, what are, or were, your preconceived notions of homosexuality?"

"Well, not much, actually. I only first heard of it right after GoGo left home. It was during lunch at school where I heard a bunch of boys talking about finding some videos on the internet, some…porn videos. They were showing it to each other on their laptops that they downloaded and, then, they started showing off lesbians and 'trannies,' as they called them. Those words, I never knew what they were."

"Made you curious?" she said with a teasing smile.

"Yeah. When I got home that day, I looked it up and…I watched some of the videos. It was the very first time that I…" his face burned and Akira dipped his head down, but his eyes looked innocently up at Elsa, whose smile only grew wider with amusement. "Um…"

"I think I got the idea," Elsa said, holding back a laugh. "So, this was your first sign of your sexual awakening?"

"I suppose so," he said. Then, a memory popped into his mind that he paused and his eyes went wide.

"Is there something else?" Elsa asked.

"You know, I just remember something. I didn't think of it back then, but…I actually didn't focus on the girls all that much."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I pretty much focused on…the guys, actually," Akira said, a sense of shock shivering throughout his body. How had he not noticed it before? "Does that mean anything?" he asked desperately.

"Well…how shall I answer this?" Elsa asked, closing her eyes in thought. "In my professional, but honest, opinion and as someone who has an interest in this subject, I believe that labeling people as either wholly heterosexuality or homosexuality is very inaccurate. Do you know of a man name Alfred Kinsey?"

"I…think so. Didn't they make a movie about him?"

"Yes, they did. Anyway, his field was in human sexuality and his famous study from the 40s and 50s documented the sexual behaviors of males and females. It was very controversial for its time, mostly because people thought it would destroy the moral ideals of family, but it suggests that people tend to have various degrees of sexual attractiveness to either of the sexes, or to both sexes equally, rather than just full out straight or gay. And, while it certainly has its problems, it's base findings continues to be validate to this day. So, your feelings for him may or may not be sexual, but I do suspect that there is an emotional component to it, a very powerful one."

Sitting upright in his seat, Akira took his time gathering his thoughts, replaying all the times that the two did interact before it went sour. It was very limited, but all that time, the two talking with each other, discussing whatever came up, or whether it was him that was doing the talking, Akira felt like he was part of something else, like he actually belong to something. And, Akira wanting to spend more time with him outside of class, that desire grew with each time the two spend during art class, to the point that Akira felt obsessive about it. He really wanted to be his friend, to be closer to him, to be more closer to him than any of his other "friends." He fantasized of how he would treat him the best, of how he would show what a great friend he can be, but he was afraid to go beyond that, fear that he never had any interest in the first place and berated himself for being selfish about it.

But, when he invited Akira to spend time with him at his home, it was almost like Akira felt that his feelings had been validated.

He looked back up at Elsa, who sat patiently for him, and told her of every thought that came to him. "Did I…actually fall in love with him?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that question for you," she said regretfully. "Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. But, there was definitely something there. Either way, it didn't end the way that you wanted, did it?"

Akira shook his head, a feeling of regret reigning in his heart. "No," he said, frowning. "The next day, I met up with him at school. I had a feeling that I had done something wrong to him so I found him at his locker and he pretended not to notice me, like I was invisible, like he always had. He tried to walk away and I yelled out to him 'I'm sorry for what I did! Please, I don't want to lose you as a friend!' Everybody heard it in the hallway and he stopped, but he didn't turn around. After a few seconds, he went on his way without looking back at me."

"That whole day, I could hear many of the students talking about what happened and I was terrified the entire time. I anticipated getting called to the principal's office, having my parents and his parents there and me having to explain everything. He didn't even show up for his art class. I was certain that he hated me. Then, when school was over, one of his teammates came up to me at my locker and told me that he was at the outside basketball court and that he wanted to talk to me. At first, I was happy, thinking that he might have forgiven me. But, when I got there, he had all of his other friends there and…" Akira stopped, his breathing becoming heavy while the memory shown itself with the voices echoing. For the first time, he actually felt pure anger over what happened while he clenched his fists over his knees. "He told them that I was a faggot, that I liked guys.

"I…didn't understand what he meant by it, but I told them that I was not, but he kept going at it. He went on to tell his friends that I like to look at their asses while in the bathrooms and lockers room, that I jerk off to them and…how I want to f-fuck them and…" tightening his fists that he could feel his fingernails dig into his palms, his rage growing inside of him.

"It's okay, Akira," Elsa said.

Tears finally fell from his eyes, his wrath boiling inside of him. "I tried to leave, but the other kids blocked my way and he punched me into the ground, hard. His friends held me down and he…grabbed my groin and squeezed it, hard, twisting it around, saying that he would rip it off one of these days and have it place at the top of the flagpole. Then, he kicked it and they all left me, laying there, unable to move for a while.

"This went on for a couple of months, with the hitting and the name-calling. I thought that maybe he was still angry at me and I tried to apologize many times, thinking that maybe he didn't think I was really sincerely sorry, hoping that…he would finally accept it. I figure that he didn't want anything to do with me anymore, but I wanted him and his friends to stop hurting me. But, he never did. And, I guess…I got really angry at him. So, one day, in the hallway, as he was walking with his friends, I punched him, really hard that he fell to the ground. And, I climbed right on top of him and started punching him and…I got the crap kicked out of me by his friends and I was suspended for a few days. I never told my parents why it happened. I wanted to tell them everything, but I was afraid that they would hate me too if they…thought the same way as the kids did. So, I just kept quiet about it, hoping that it would end.

"But, when I came back to school, some of the students, both boys and girls, all just looked at me with not-so-friendly eyes. The girls would touch me where I didn't want to be touch, almost like a competition, to see if they could get me to react to them. It really weirded me out. I was even chased out of the restroom one time because some of the guys in there were afraid that I might…do something to them. And, these were guys who were on the football team and I was half their size…" Akira couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all, but fresh tears, full of angry, continued to fall and he quickly wiped them away. "And, it wasn't afterwards that I got people telling me that I should just kill myself because nobody there likes faggots, not even my family."

"Was that when you decided to commit suicide?"

Akira nodded and this throat tighten, his raging emotions battling inside. Breathing heavily, he tried to suppress his anguish.

"You were too afraid to tell you parents about what was happening to you because you thought that they would turn against you if they knew. Did you felt the same for your sister, despite being very close to her?" Elsa asked.

"Yeah," Akira said and sniffed loudly. "I've wanted to tell her, tell her everything, but, I couldn't. I couldn't live with myself if she also started hating me. She's my only friend."

"So, you rather take your secret with you to the grave and deny your love ones the truth of your pain. At the very least, it would end your problems and suffering. But, you would have neglected your family, making them suffer if you had succeeded. And, when you tried, you were saved a the very last minute by your father. Your parents quickly took you to the hospital and your sister came rushing back home to see her little brother. Now, with everything out in the open, they have shown that they care for you, worried for you, and they still love you. And, they continue to believe in you."

Akira took in a deep breath, letting her words sooth him like a wonderful tonic. He still felt angry, but he was beginning to accept that it was done and over with and in the past. "Yeah," he said, choking on his crying while fresh tears flowed.

"I understand that people can be scary, and even illogical at points, but we can, at least, be honest with ourselves and trust that there are people who will care for you unconditionally. And, best of all, people can change. So, don't be afraid to make friends. I'm sure that you can make plenty here if given the chance."

A smile appeared on Akira's lips while a name came to mind. "Well, there is one, I guess."

"Oh?" Elsa said, interest on her face while she leaned forward. "Who is it, if I may ask?"

"Um, well, he's one of my sister's classmates from her college. His name is Tadashi Hamada."

His face lit up in a smile with the thought of him and he found Elsa raising an eyebrow while a smile formed on her lips. "Do I detect something? Forgive me for saying this, but I can't help but think that you may have some form of affinity for this Tadashi Hamada."

"A little," Akira said, his smile becoming bigger.

"Handsome?"

"Very handsome. And really dedicated to his work. But…"

"But?"

"Is it really okay for me to…feel like this?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, he's much older than me, him being in college and me about to go into high school. Plus, I don't think he's into guys anyway."

"That is quite the dilemma," Elsa said, sounding sympathetic to his plight.

"I just only hope that it doesn't go the same way like it did before."

"Would you like to hear my advice on the whole thing? Not my professional advice, but as one friend to another?" Elsa asked.

"Please," Akira said.

"Tell him how you feel about him."

His eyes wide open in surprise, Akira's throat tightened. He was about to say something, but Elsa held up her hand to stop him. "I know what you are thinking: 'What would be the point of it?' Well, for one thing, it would help put his whole thoughts about you into a whole new perspective and force him to reconsider his own feelings. I trust that he already knows about your past." Akira nodded. "The fact that he still accepts you is very good sign, almost a guarantee, that he'll treat your feelings with respect that you deserve. True, he may not have any romantic feelings for you, but I don't believe that you should doubt his feelings for you as a friend. In fact, he may cherish it and it could lead to a more rewarding friendship."

Thinking on it more, Akira began to feel that what she said could fit with what he saw with Tadashi as a person despite the short amount of time that he had known him. He had been kind, understanding, and fun to be around with. He felt more mature and showed interest in Akira. "I'll think about it," Akira said.

"That's all I ask," Elsa said, smiling encouragingly. "Well, this has been a very good start. We can call this a session if you like."

"Sure." The two stood up from their seats and, impulsively, Akira ran over to Elsa and wrapped his arms around in a tight hug. She held a look of surprise on her face for a second and it quickly calmed while the woman gently placed her arms around the young boy, hugging him back. "Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome, Akira," she said.

The two walked out of the room and headed down the hall back to the front where they found GoGo sitting in one of the chairs, reading a magazine with a couple of other people there. She looked up just as they walked inside and got up. "So, how'd it go?" she asked him.

Impulsively, he wrapped his arms around GoGo, squeezing her just as hard. GoGo looked at him with a look of surprise and turned to look at Elsa and Anna, both smiling at the scene. "What happened in there?" she asked.

"He's just very happy to see you," Elsa said, winking.

Giving in, GoGo hugged Akira back.

After setting up for future appointments, the two left the floor, taking the elevator back down to the basement parking lot. "Feeling better?" GoGo asked.

"Yeah," Akira said, smiling at her, meaning by what he said. She smiled back and pulled him closer with her arm and kissed him on the top of his head. "Hey, GoGo?"

"Yeah?"

"Think I need a haircut?"

"Is that what you want?"

"Yeah. And, I want to go where you get yours."

"Alright. Luckily for us, it's at the same mall that we are going, so we can do it right after your eye exam."

"Cool." For the first time in a week, Akira began to feel at home in San Fransokyo.


	6. Chapter VI

**Chapter VI: First Meeting**

Akira looked out from the huge parking lot where GoGo just parked the motorcycle to find a humongous building, unable to hold its entire width within his vision that he had to turned his head from left to right to get the real sense of it dimensions. Standing several floors high with many recognizable big-chain logos and some he never even heard of before hanging from the gray concrete walls in between the windows, he remarked to himself that the one back home didn't even come close in matching with its sheer size.

"They actually expanded it recently, finishing up with the construction a few months ago," GoGo said. "You're looking at one of the biggest shopping malls in the world."

"It looks as though you could get yourself lost in there," Akira said, feeling that what he said wasn't hyperbole.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a maze," she said. With a pat on the back, GoGo lead Akira down the crowded parking lot.

It took a couple of minutes just to get to the doors that Akira saw would take them up to the walkway that will carry them across the busy freeway. Once inside, they managed to nab a locker to hold on to their helmets and took the escalator up to the walkway where several people strolled in both directions. There was even a conveyor belt for people to stand on and just let it carry them across, moving pass the windows where several endless lines of vehicles passed across from underneath them. Reaching the end, GoGo opened the door for him and he walked inside to be greeted with the sounds of loud, joyous screams.

A car loaded with people sped upward towards the top of the high, steeple glass ceiling until it slowed almost to a halt and, then, fell backward, following the tracks back down, flipping them around as they fell. Letting out surprised screams, the people took the turns easily, their legs swinging harmlessly over the walls and anything else with ease while they flew away down the large corridor of the monolithic building.

"There's a roller coaster in here?" Akira shouted in awe, looking over the bannister to see more of it, but hardly believing in what he was seeing.

"Yep," GoGo said, standing next to him. "Want to try it out when we get the chance today?"

"Heck yeah!" Akira shouted with glee and his attention shifted to the atrium around him.

Hexagonal in shape, several floors stacked on top of one another with the sunlight shining down from the glass ceiling where the roller coaster just visited, giving off a gold hue in the air. People walked around, some holding bags of the shops they had visited, drinking from their cups or eating food like ice cream on a cone or a hot dog, or lounging in chairs and couches to rest their feet. Names of stores and restaurants wrapped around the perimeter of the area, each trying to draw attention to themselves either with wacky fonts and colors or to show authority in their business with its boldness. Many floras littered everywhere, plants as small as flowers planted in beds, to as big as palm trees rooted at the ground level to give a sense of paradise on Earth in this concrete jungle.

"This is incredible," Akira said.

"It sure is," GoGo said. "Come on, let's get that optometrist appointment out of the way."

The two walked along the wide corridor with GoGo talking on her phone and Akira looked at the many more smaller shops as they walked by. The majority of them were clothing stores or for accessories like purses or jewelry, hardly any interest to him as they were for women or they only featured very beautiful people in their advertisement like only cool looking people can wear their clothes. But, there were other stores that managed to find a spot in the catalog like books, electronics, arts and crafts, and memorabilia. There were even attractions like an art museum, an interactive science center, adventure themed mazes, comedy clubs, and, not only did it had a movie theater, but IMAX as well. He definitely want to come back later to check out some of the movies that will be coming out over the summer.

"Thanks, I owe you big time for this. See ya soon," GoGo said and ended her call. "Great news. We can stop at the hair salon as soon as we get you your new glasses. Usually, we would have to make an appointment, but I got a friend there that can take you in as a favor to me so we can get in, get out real quick."

Akira was about to give his answer of approval, but his stomach interrupted him, grumbling over the noisy mall that GoGo could hear it with amusement. "And, lunch?" Akira asked, feeling sheepish.

"Right, that. How about we go right after your haircut?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Also, since we are here, we might as well knock out the clothes shopping. Mom keeps insisting that you should get you new clothes."

"Wow, you're starting to sound more like a mom than a sister," Akira said.

"Well, I do need to play the part."

"Yeah, except I'm the one who does all the cooking."

She hooked her arm around his neck and gave him a noogie in retaliation. "And who has to buy all that food that you use in your cooking? Don't forget that I'm the one having to buy you shit all the time, as well as taking my precious time out of my busy schedule to take you to all of your appointments today!"

"Alright, alright! I take it back!" Akira screamed, but his laughter got mixed in and GoGo joined in as well. Having their little fun, the two carried on.

They reached their destination and Akira found the optometrist place rather humble looking with its polished wood flooring and its wide variety of glasses hanging from nearly every white wall. After confirming with the receptionist of his appointment, the two sat down with GoGo filling out the insurance forms while Akira waited for his turn. Looking at the many glasses on display, he carefully rated each one, trying to figure out which would look the best on him. Admittedly, his current ones felt a little heavy, enough that they left two marks on each side of his nose after years of wearing them, so he like to have something smaller and lighter. But, for the design, he felt a little stumped. He wondered what would look good on him.

"Akira, you're up," GoGo said.

"Huh?" he snapped out of his thoughts and found the receptionist looking at him with a patient smile and he quickly got up and followed her to the back.

The eye exam went as well as he expected, with the doctor saying that his eyesight had improved a bit. With his prescription in hand, he came out and begin the difficult task of choosing the right glasses for him. He looked through the men's section and tried on several pairs from different brand, trying to ignore the prices as GoGo's advised him. He tried to get the feel of them on his face and looked himself in the mirror, but the plastic stand-ins couldn't give him a clear view of his appearance. He conferred with GoGo several times, which she gave her honest opinion about each one.

After much self-debating, he finally settled on a smaller pair with rectangular frames that felt almost weightless on his face. Course, that was before the actual lens were placed in, which they would be quite thick. He couldn't remember when he had never worn any glasses, but GoGo said that he didn't start wearing them until he was five. It was odd because both of their parents never wore glasses themselves, but it seemed that their grandfather on their father's side did, so it must have skipped a generation.

"Have you thought about getting contact lens?" GoGo asked. "You look cute without the glasses."

"You're just saying that because you're my sister," Akira said.

"Not many sisters would say that about their baby brothers, so be grateful for the compliment," she said, giving him a playful knock on his head. "But, joking aside, I'm serious about it. It's a shame to be hiding such a handsome face behind some glasses."

"Well, I don't like the idea of having to use my finger to even try to place very tiny lens onto my eyeball. Just thinking about it makes me cringe."

"Fair enough. At least you're getting a much better looking pair."

"And, I'm perfectly fine with that."

His new glasses arrived and, after a few adjustments to make it fit better on his face, he looked himself in the mirror next to him on the counter and was surprise by how much of a difference it made.

"Actually, I change my mind," GoGo said. "You look great with glasses."

All set and ready, the two left the optometrist, GoGo still leading the way through the increasing hustle and bustle of the mall patrons. Because the lens was much smaller, he had to turn his head more to look, but, because of how light it felt, it was much more comfortable on his face. It was a much-needed change.

They took the escalator down to the first level and walked a bit more when they came across the pick-up point for the roller coaster with the crew just beginning to load the excited passengers for the next ride. However, looking at the long line that stretched out far, it may take some time for him to get the chance to ride it, so he made a mental note to visit it later.

"We're here," GoGo announced.

Looking up, Akira read the name of their destination: "Chic Style" with the scissors in place of the "y" and a comb in place of the "l" along with a pair of women's eyes looking over the name exotically.

"A beauty parlor?" Akira said. "I don't think I'm that gay."

"Don't worry, they do guys as well," GoGo said. "I promise they won't do anything girly to you. Just want to make you look cool, just like what they did to your awesome sister." With a guiding hand on his back, Akira walked inside like his fate had already been sealed.

"Welcome to Chic Style," a woman's voice called out. Nearly every chair was occupied with a woman or a young girl each having their own hair worked into their own style, some with dye to heighten the effect. The floor was tiled black and white like a huge chessboard and Akira found several large pictures of beautiful people all lined up on the walls, each having their own unique hairstyle that seemed to be made for them specifically, looking like they can be found in an anime, but could not imagine himself looking good with that sort of style on himself.

Walking up to the first hair stylist working feverously, GoGo lightly tapped the girl on her shoulder. The girl spun around, first looking to give the person a piece of her mind for interrupting her, but immediately beamed once she recognized the interloper.

"Oh, my God! GoGo!" she greeted, giving GoGo a big hug. Looking to be the same age, she looked as though she had lived in a music video from the 80s, her blond, curly hair held back in a ponytail, deep red lips, a black corset tank top covered with a white button up shirt with the top part opened wide along with black pants and matching black high heels. "How you've been, girl? I haven't seen you in, like, ages!"

"You know how it is?" GoGo said. "College draining every little bit of me. But, I would change anything about it. Looks like this place is still hanging on."

"Oh, believe me, this is a picnic right now. With summer already here, it's going to get hectic in this joint. But, like you, I wouldn't change it for the world. Helps pay the bills, at least," the hair stylist said. Her eyes moved to catch Akira standing behind GoGo. "Hey, cutie. How are you?"

"I'm good," Akira said. He never liked being called that by complete strangers, believing that they are just saying that just to be nice. But, he had to admit, it did feel a little nice.

"This is my little brother, Akira, the one I'm hoping that you can squeeze into your little busy schedule."

"Sure can. Just let me finish up here. Shouldn't be long."

The two went back to the front and sat down in the black seats next to each other. Akira, feeling like he had just made a big mistake, look at GoGo worriedly. "I don't know what I want," he whispered, a surge of panic piling up.

"Don't worry about that," she said. "She enjoys a little experimentation, so she can figure it out for you. It worked for me, so she'll do right for you."

"Even the dye?"

"That's my own personal touch."

A few minutes passed, but Akira still worried and it increased as soon as he saw the customer paid and left, leaving the chair wide open for him. He walked over to it and sat down like it was an executioner's chair. Not even the friendly smile on the woman's face could set him at ease, feeling anxious about the whole procedure. "I can hold on to your glasses for you, sweetie," she said.

"Oh, that's okay. I can hold on to them," Akira said and cradled his new glasses over his lap. She consented to his wish and quickly wrapped the black poncho around his body, leaving his whole head exposed to the mercy of the hair stylist after she snapped the buttons tight around his neck.

GoGo walked up to them and watched while the hair stylist pushed her fingers through his stringy hair. He could feel her long fingernails gently scraping across his scalp. "I think short would work," she said and studied a bit more. "Yeah, definitely, that way you can show off more of that cute face of yours."

His cheeks flashed red. "Okay, that's enough. I'm not paying you to hit on my brother," GoGo said, amused.

The hair stylist giggled. "Okay, I have it, I can see it now. Leave me be, GoGo. You must not distract an artist."

"Work you magic, girl," GoGo said and left within the first cut.

It felt like hours had past while Akira sat patiently still in his chair while she clipped, snipped, combed, trimmed, sprayed, and buzzed around his head, slowly separating any excess hair form his head. His mind wondered on how it would look in the end, wondering if she made a mistake but would not be able to reset it. A sense of excitement and nervousness swell inside of him by his inability to imagine his new look.

The last snip echoed in his ear and she stopped, looking at him with a satisfactory smile. "All done! I bet you're wondering how it looks, huh?" she said.

"Yeah," he said eagerly.

She held a large mirror in front of him, big enough to hold his entire face on its surface, and he quickly placed his glasses back onto his face. He was startled to find a new face looking back at him, almost didn't recognizing himself. Tiny spikes pointed up from his crown, from the front above his forehead to the back, and his hair becoming less visible going down on the side of his head. It was almost military in style, but with a punk quality to it.

He moved his hand up to his head to check if it really was real, but the hair stylist quickly grabbed it and gently pulled it away. "You should let it alone for about an hour or so," she said. "So, do you like it?"

Akira stared at himself a little bit more and his lips formed a little smile. "Yeah. I do like it a lot," he said and look at the woman like she was his savior. "Thank you very much."

"You are very welcome, sweetie," she said, happy to see him so happy.

Freeing him from his seat, they returned to the front where GoGo had been waiting and saw them walking to her. "Wow," she said, looking surprised by his new look. "That is totally different than what I imagined. But it suits you, Akira."

"It's thanks to her," Akira pointed to the hair stylist.

"Oh, stop it. You're making me blush," the woman said, holding onto her cheeks.

After they paid, the two walked out with their good-byes and ready to move on to their next part of their agenda. But, not without GoGo taking a picture of Akira for her to send to their parents to see. "Alright, handsome," she said. "Let's go get something to eat. I know the perfect place."

"Actually, I need to use the restroom real quick," Akira said.

"Alright. There one nearby," she said. Pointing to the restroom sign, she went and sit down at a nearby chair to wait while Akira went down the long hall to the men's restroom.

Truth be told, he didn't need to use it. Inside, he quickly went over to the sink and looked himself in the mirror, wanting to soak more of this new image of himself to replace the memory of his old one. Smiling, he began to feel better about himself, that whatever happened before didn't matter anymore to him. What's done is done, he thought.

This is the new Akira.

A flush echoed loudly from one of the stalls behind him, followed with a lock unlocking. Surprised by it, Akira quickly pressed one of the buttons for some warm water, pretending that he had just used one of the urinals. The new person walked up to the sink to his right, placing his bookbag on the floor and began washing his hands. Looking up at the mirror, Akira found the person's reflection and a sense of déjà vu hit him.

The person was a teenage boy, maybe the same age as himself. He looked so familiar, yet Akira was certain that he had never met him before. Asian in appearance with a moppy black hair that nearly matched what Akira had just minutes before, he wore a blue hoodie jacket with a red undershirt.

Then, he finally remembered where he saw him before. "Hiro Hamada?" Akira instinctively said.

"Hmm?" the boy turned his head to look at Akira. "Did you say something?"

Akira quickly looked away and filled his palms with soap from the dispenser. He lathered his hands furiously to get himself to avoid further eye contact with the boy. Maybe he was mistaken, he thought to himself, but the boy looked so similar to the boy in the photograph hanging in Tadashi's lab, even down to the same type of clothes. Curious, Akira wanted to be absolutely sure about his suspicion, but he didn't want the boy to think that he was some sort of creep.

He waited for a bit and risked a peek up at the mirror. The boy just finished up washing his hands and stepped away. He picked up his bookbag and walked past Akira, ignoring him, and went over to the hand dryer, placing his hands underneath the nozzle where the machine whirred up. Akira had followed him with his eyes and noticed a faraway look on the boy's face, like he was deep in thought. He saw some resemblance to Tadashi as the college man would sometimes look out at the window, deep in thought that Akira always enjoy watching, finding the man at his most handsomest. He felt the same way looking at the boy, but more on the cute side that he kept on looking at him.

"AHH!" Akira screamed from the touch of the hot water while steam rose from the sink. His hands still covered in lathered soap, Akira flapped his hands to cool them off, still feeling the burning sensations on his fingers, and he looked up to find the boy looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You okay there?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. The water got hot," Akira said sheepishly.

"Well, that's because you got that knob all the way over to hot."

"Huh?" Akira looked back at the faucet and noticed the tiny lever on its side was pushed all the way to the back where the red dot indicated its function. "I didn't notice that."

Giving Akira a look that indicated that he found the response unbelievable, the wiped the rest of his wetness from his hands onto his jacket and headed for the door. Hastily, Akira adjust the water temperature, rinsed his hands, hardly passed his hands underneath the dryer, and made for the door before it could slammed closed. Outside, he found the boy just a few paces ahead, walking back into the mall. It was now or never.

"Um…excuse me?" Akira called out.

The boy stopped and turned back at Akira. "What?" he said, looking unappreciative for being interrupted.

"Uh…you…you wouldn't happen to know someone name 'Tadashi,' do you?" Akira asked.

The boy just stared at him indifferently, yet his pause went on for so long that Akira thought that he was thinking up an answer instead of just flat-out answering, almost calculating in that sense. "What if I do?" he said, almost sounding like a challenge.

Akira just shrugged his shoulders. "I was just wondering because you look so familiar to me."

"Well, I don't remember ever seeing you before," he said and promptly turned around, continuing his way.

"You're Hiro Hamada, correct?"

The boy halted and stood there. He looked over his shoulders back at Akira with a staggered look, clearly surprised by Akira's guess. Turning back around again, he quickly marched up to Akira and looked at him with an inquisitive glare. The boy stood almost the same height as himself, maybe some centimeters shorter, but Akira could sense coldness in the boy's stare.

"I thought I heard you call my name in there," Hiro said. "How do you know who I am?"

"From your brother, Tadashi. I saw a picture of you in his lab at his college."

His glare softened, but he still looked suspicious. "You're Akira?"

"Y-Yes," Akira said, a sense of excitement bubbling inside of him of finally meeting with Tadashi's younger brother. "Tadashi told you about me?"

Hiro pulled himself away. "Yeah, he did mention about some fanboy stalking him at his campus for the last week."

A vain bulged from Akira's forehead while he stared at Hiro with astonishment by the comment. "Wh-What?" he yelled, unsure on how to respond to such a ridiculous statement.

Then, Hiro wiped his fingers on Akira's right shoulder and looked at his fingertips. "Got yourself a new haircut?" he asked and stared into Akira's dumbfounded face. "And those glasses look pretty new. Not to mention the nice-looking clothes. And, since I didn't hear another flush, you must be checking yourself in the mirror to make sure that you look good for this little playdate that Tadashi set us up with."

"Huh?" Akira said, confused. "Playdate?"

"Oh, so it was meant to be a surprise," Hiro said, more so to himself while he turned away from Akira. "Whoops."

"What are you talking about?" Akira asked.

"Nothing. Just forget what I just said. In fact, let's pretend that we never saw each other," Hiro said and began walking away, leaving behind Akira while question marks floating around his head.

"Hey, wait a second!' Akira chased after Hiro, but he began running away from him, keeping considerable distance ahead that he quickly turned at the corner at the end of the corridor, disappearing from Akira's sight. Akira continued running after him, still confused about what Hiro had said. _Playdate? Surprise? What is going on?_ he thought and reached the end.

He found GoGo and Tadashi both looking at Hiro curiously like he was telling them something. Then, he turned around and found Akira like he knew he be coming and the others look up at him. "That's the weird kid that kept looking at me funny in the restroom," Hiro said, pointing at Akira with an accusing glare.

"Huh?" Akira stood back, not sure as to what was going on.

"Akira?" Tadashi said, looking astounded. "Is that really you?"

"Wait, you know him?" Hiro said, looking up at the older male in surprise, but Akira felt that it was a fake reaction.

"Yeah. He's the one I've been telling you about. Akira Tomogo."

Looking back at Akira, Hiro held a suspiciously glare while he held his chin in his hand like an overzealous detective. "Oh, come on!" Akira yelled at him, getting rather annoyed by his behavior. "We just meet earlier!"

A wicked smirk on his lips, Hiro gave up on his façade and placed his hands behind his head. "Yeah, but I didn't want to ruin this fateful meeting that Tadashi has worked so hard to achieve," Hiro said, almost in a condescending tone.

Tadashi gave Hiro a smack upside the head, his face showing that he was not amused by what was going on. "That's enough out of you," Tadashi said while Hiro rubbed his head in pain.

"Wait, Hiro said something about a playdate," Akira said.

"Yeah, this was all planned out," GoGo said. She didn't look too happy. "Tadashi wanted you and his little brother to meet, so we had this arranged. The thing is we were supposed to meet sometime in the afternoon, but Tadashi, without informing me for some reason, wanted it to happen earlier." She gave her male companion a mini-death glare.

"I thought it would be a nice surprise," Tadashi said. choice

Akira looked back at Hiro while the boy rubbed the back of his head. Hiro caught him staring and promptly looked away, a scowl forming on his lips of his own disinterest. Akira took a guess that the boy, for whatever reason, did not approve of this setup and may have come here not on his own decision, that Tadashi may have talk him into it. Akira began to not feel confident about the whole thing anymore.

"So, now that we finally meet, what do you guys want to do?" Tadashi asked.

A growling sound answered, which Akira patted his stomach. "Well, GoGo and I were just on our way to lunch," Akira said.

"Perfect. We haven't eaten ourselves," Tadashi said.

"I don't know," GoGo said.

"What?"

"I'm starting to think that Akira may not like this set-up, unless I'm wrong," she said, looking at Akira for some sort of confirmation.

Akira didn't answer right away, looking back his sister, to Tadashi who looked a little worried, and back at Hiro, who looked hopeful. He had a bad feeling about it, but he didn't want to deny himself the opportunity. As Elsa said, he need to trust himself more.

"Well, let's go, Tadashi," Hiro said, turning around to walk away.

But, Tadashi grabbed a hold of the boy's hoodie, stopping him. "Hiro-"

"Would you two like to join us for lunch?" Akira asked.

While Tadashi's face beamed a victorious smile and GoGo shrugged her shoulders in content, Hiro looked back at him in disappointment and his body slumped to match it. "We would love to," Tadashi said. "Right, Hiro."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," the boy said.

With GoGo leading the way, Tadashi had Akira stand next to Hiro while Tadashi took Akira's spot next to GoGo ahead of them. Before they set off, Tadashi looked back at Hiro and flashed the boy a stern look like a parent would to a disobeying child. Hiro didn't seem all that concern about it, placing his arms behind his head as they followed their siblings through the packed mall once again.

The two had been quiet, Hiro showing no interest in even acknowledging Akira's presence while he looked up ahead. Akira, in all respects, wouldn't have mind the silence, but feeling this coldness coming from Hiro was making it uncomfortable to the point of awkwardness. Usually, he didn't like the idea of breaking the ice, but he figured he needed to try since his reluctant companion wasn't willing to. "So," Akira began, his mind wondering on a topic, "you already graduated from high school, right? That's cool."

Hiro averted his eyes away from Akira, taking more interest at the stores passing them. _This is a lot tougher than I thought it would be_ Akira thought, feeling like he was fighting a losing battle. He almost wanted to concede defeat, remembering how the last time it didn't work so well in the end, but he remembered Elsa telling him that he can make plenty of friends if he just trust himself. Time to try something else.

"Um, do you like playing video games?" Akira asked. Hiro still kept his eyes away. "I love video games myself. I usually play RPGs and fighting games, but I can play all kinds of games. Like _MarioKart_ , especially _Double Dash_. Course, my sister has always been really good at racing games, but I've managed to beat her a few times."

"That because I let you win," GoGo said, turning her head back at them. "Years ago, we would go on binges that would last for hours because he wanted to beat me at my own game so bad. He's gotten better over time, but he could never defeat me. And, whenever he loses in very tight race, he gives this pathetic, yet adorable pouty face and say 'One more time!' His thumbs were so sore from all of the sessions he couldn't form his hands into fists for days."

"You lie!" Akira said, incredulous at his sister's confession. "I know I've beaten you, fair and square!"

"Maybe once, but I don't remember," GoGo said, shrugging her shoulders while giving Tadashi a smirk like a secret was passed between them.

Pouting, Akira quickly remembered Hiro and looked at the boy, but there was no reaction, almost like he couldn't hear the whole thing. _Well, that was a bust_ he thought, feeling like he was running out of options.

"What fighting games do you enjoy?" Hiro asked, and turned his head back at Akira.

 _He talked_ Akira said, caught off guard. "Um, a lot, actually. Let's see, there's _Super Smash Bros., Tekken, Dead or Alive, Marvel vs. Capcom, The King of Fighters, Street Fighters_ and _Mortal Kombat_ , of course. Oh, I just gotten into _BlazBlue_ recently. That's really fun. Course, I mainly play it for its story."

" _Blazblue,_ huh?" Hiro said. "Would you say that you are good at it?"

"Um, I can't say, really," Akira said. "I never played it with anybody else."

Hiro continued to stare at Akira, his eyes narrowing a bit that Akira found it off-putting. _What is he thinking?_ Akira thought, feeling comfortable by his gaze, like his worth was being measured against Hiro's high standards.

"There's an arcade on the other side of the mall," Hiro said, almost in a business-like manner. "After lunch, maybe we can go there?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Akira said. As if the business had been concluded, Hiro looked back ahead.

Mixed feelings bubbled inside of Akira. While excited by the prospects with the invite, Hiro's expressions did not change, his face showing the single emotion of indifference, blank of any other kind. But, Akira immediately recognized it as the one he saw back at the restroom, that same faraway look. It looked so full of thought, even calculating. _What is he thinking about?_ Akira thought, unsure of the answer.

But, Akira never worked the nerve to ask him about it, figuring that he probably wouldn't say anything about it. The two boys never said another word to each other for the rest of the walk, but, at least, the silence was a little more bearable.


	7. Chapter VII

**Chapter VII: Getting to Know You Without Killing You**

"What kind of name is _Cracker Barrel_?" Hiro asked, staring at the name with a raised eyebrow.

Standing up in between shops, a long, brown wooden wall with a roof extending out to resemble a front porch of a cabin with windows showing the interior with people packed inside. A row of traditional looking rocking chairs lined up with their price tags hanging from their side along with a couple of kids torqueing them as far back as they can while they sit on it to get them to rock back and forth in an extreme fashion, laughing like they were having the time of their lives.

"Oh, I've heard about this place," Tadashi said. "This is actually their very first restaurant to officially open here in the city. I've been hearing a lot of good things about it."

"Our family would go to one of their places back home," Akira said, excited to actually eat at his favorite restaurant.

"What exactly do they serve here, possum sausage?" Hiro asked.

"And alligator eggs," Akira added jokingly.

Hiro gave him a blank stare, which dumbfounded Akira. "Uh…" was all that Akira managed to say, unsure of what to make of Hiro's expression.

"You know that was a serious question, right?" Hiro said.

"What?" Akira said, wondering if the joke was still going.

"Come on, you two, while there's still seats to grab," GoGo called out as she and Tadashi walked up the porch steps.

Hiro let out a sigh. "Never mind," he said and followed them, leaving behind an even more flabbergasted Akira.

 _What just happened?_ he thought, but he quickly followed them inside.

The place was crowded, the store area littered with people as they walked around to either shop or to look at the unique inventory of clothing, toys, and other merchandises that seemed that they had their debut decades ago and were hoping for a comeback. Country music played softly in the background from the intercom, barely audible over the ceaseless chatter, helping to set the mood of the place.

"Did we just transport to a scene in _Deliverance_?" Hiro asked.

"A lot friendlier version," Tadashi said.

"Sure, if you don't mind squealing like a pig for them." Akira gave Hiro a cocked eyebrow when he noticed that the boy wasn't even smiling at his own joke, like he was making a valid observation. Hiro turned to him and notice his hard stare. "What?"

"Nothing," Akira said, turning away. He figured that Hiro was possibly protesting of being here, but he could, at least, be a little civil.

They approached the entrance to the restaurant side where a server greeted them and, grabbing a stack of menus, led them inside. Nearly every table was occupied with the air thick with jumbled conversations. Antiquated items hung from the gray walls such as old-fashioned boards games like chessboards and backgammon, empty soda bottles, canned food with silly illustrations, home utilities and tools that looked a little rusted but possibly functional, and framed photographs of children and adults all dressed in clothing that had long been out of fashion.

"I really like the aesthetics in here," Tadashi said. "There's even a fireplace."

"Bunch of old junk if you ask me," Hiro said.

The server led them to a table next to a window where shoppers stroll back and forth from outside. Akira and GoGo took their seats on one side while Tadashi and Hiro sat on the opposite with Hiro sitting across from Akira, much to the boy's dismay. After the server handed out their menus, GoGo and Tadashi each ordered coffee, Akira asked for Orange n' Cream soda, and Hiro ordered root beer. She promptly left to allow them time to study their options.

Akira quickly knew what he wanted and set his menu down, only to find Tadashi looking at him from the side of his, a little smile on his lips. "What is it, Tadashi?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, it's just that I couldn't help but think of how handsome you look, with your new haircut and such," Tadashi said teasingly. "You hoping to catch someone's eye?"

His cheeks flushing, Akira smiled, amazed to get such a favorable response from Tadashi. _If only you knew whose eye I would like to catch. And, ironically, it seemed to be working._

"So, what you're saying is that it's an improvement over his old looks?" Hiro asked.

"What?" Tadashi looked at Hiro with shock, caught off guard by the remark. "N-No, of course not! I didn't mean it like that!" the man said, getting flustered. "I'm just saying-"

"It's fine, Tadashi," Akira said. "I'm glad to hear you say that. Thank you."

Seeing that Akira meant it, Tadashi calmed down. "Sure. You're welcome," he said.

"Real smooth, Casanova," Hiro said, to which Tadashi gave the smirking teenager a sharp elbow thrust into his side.

"Shut it, will ya?" Tadashi said and returned back to his menu, his face showing a hint of red.

Still surprised by what just happened, Akira began to wonder of the possibility…and promptly dismiss the thought, reminding himself of the reasons why it was impossible. But, his mind fought back with its imagination of what it would be like if he and Tadashi were able to go on an actual date, just the two of them.

A moonlit night with stars twinkling high up in the dark, blue sky and the two sat at a table out on a white, ivory balcony. Tadashi would certainly look incredibly handsome in a tuxedo. Course, he might also wear that cap of his, but he could make it work with any outfit. Then, the music would start to play and he would ask Akira for a dance, to which, of course, the boy would be delighted and reach out to take his offering hand. Out on the dancefloor, the two would get lost in each other's eyes, forgetting that the world around them even existed, the only things that matter at the moment was the both of them. And, then, Tadashi will move in a little closer-

"Hey, you awake over there?"

"Huh?" Akira found himself back in the restaurant and saw that his table companions and the waitress were all looking at him inquisitively. "What?" he asked innocently.

"It's your turn to order," GoGo said.

His brain registered what was happening and quickly picked up his menu. "Right! Sorry!" he said and quickly gave his order while he hid his reddening face. Finished, the waitress took away his hiding place and left, leaving Akira to drop his head in an attempt to keep his red face hidden.

"You okay over there?" Tadashi asked him.

Akira looked up at Tadashi and forced a smile that came off as uncomfortable. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said hastily. "W-Why wouldn't I be?"

"You looked as though you were in La La Land," Hiro said, pouring his root beer into his frozen mug that the waitress must had brought without Akira noticing. "What were you daydreaming about?"

"N-Nothing!" Akira said and copy Hiro with his own drink.

"Then, what's with the drool?"

In surprise, Akira reached up to his cheek and caught some wetness. "I'm just hungry," he said hastily. Hiro only shrugged his shoulders, looking marginally satisfied with the answer as if it only proved his point somehow, which made Akira annoyed with him.

While they waited for their food, Tadashi and GoGo started talking with each other, discussing their schooling as well as possible classes they wanted to take in the future. Looking engrossed in their conversation, Akira thought that maybe he should stay out of it since he had nothing to contribute. He turned at Hiro, finding the boy holding a bored look on his face with his head propped up and circling the rim of his mug with his finger and Akira didn't feel like engaging in any meaningful conversation with him since he didn't seem at all interested, if he ever did.

He looked around in hopes of finding something to distract himself until the food arrive and found a familiar staple of the place, a triangular wooden block with multi-colored pegs placed in holes sitting on top of the windowsill. He picked it up from its spot and placed it in front of him, a feeling of nostalgia flowing through him as he remembered all the times he tried to solve it on his own without GoGo's help, in which she did managed to figure out pretty quickly. He began the game with his first hop of one of the peg over another and took out the latter from its hole, placing it aside.

"What's that?" Hiro asked. "Does every table have one?"

Akira, taken aback by Hiro's attention on him, continued with his game. "Yeah," he said. "The object of the game is to leave one peg behind."

With each hop, the number of pegs dwindled, and the more difficult it was for Akira to plan out his next move while he felt Hiro's eyes all over him. Seven pegs remain in their holes and Akira reached for the blue one in the corner and eyed the red one adjacent to it to be the next one to go.

"I don't think you should do that," Hiro said.

"What?" Akira looked up at the boy in bewilderment while Hiro stared at the peg game.

"In fact, if I'm not mistaken in how this game is played, the very least you'll be able to leave behind is four, which that would make you…" Hiro leaned forward to read the inscription on the block, "an 'egg-noramous.' Cute," he smirked, which Akira noticed a tiny gap in between his front teeth that accentuate Hiro's boyish face. It looked downright adorable, Akira thought and felt himself almost drawn to it.

Shaking the silly thought out of his head, Akira brought his concentrate back to his game. Feeling like a challenged had been laid down, he ignored Hiro's advice and continued with his intended move.

Five pegs stood all spread out on the block with no option for him to continue, making it a Game Over. In all the years that Akira had tried to beat the game, he was certain that this was his worst performance, making him feel more than just an "egg-noramous."

"Well, no offense to you, but it honestly doesn't look that hard," Hiro said.

"Well, if you think it's easy, why don't you give it a try, Mr. High-School-Graduate," Akira said and placed all of the pegs back into their holes. He pushed the block in front of Hiro, a challenged look plastered on his face.

Hiro wasn't fazed by it. "Alright," he said, cracking his knuckles.

Hiro studied the pegs carefully for a few seconds while Akira watched him intently. He actually wanted to see if Hiro really was a smart as Tadashi made him out to be while hoping for just as big of an epic fail. Hiro began his first move and went on at a steady pace like it was a choreographed performance, pulling out each one that he managed to jump over. With each one gone, Akira's expression changed from eagerness to see Hiro's failing into a slow astonishment with four left on the block. Then, three. Then, two. And, with a final hop, the sole peg stood in the middle of the triangle.

"No way!" Akira cried out, disbelief painted on his face.

"Wow, that was a lot simpler than I thought it would be," Hiro said and leaned back into his chair with his hands behind his head, looking as though he had obtained an empty victory.

"Let me try that again," Akira said, pulling the block back in front of him and placed all of the pegs back into their places.

Being more careful with his moves, Akira tried to find every possible sequence he could take, but he began to develop a headache while trying to retain all of that information, but he pressed on. While he never looked up to confirm his suspicions, he knew that Hiro was watching him in silence and he couldn't help but feel like he was being judged. Ignoring it, he continued.

With his final move, Akira stared at the last two remaining peg, separated by one hole that ended the game effectively. Letting out a small groin, Akira hung his head in shame and soaked in his total failure.

"Hey, it was a pretty good attempt," Hiro said. Akira wasn't sure if he was being genuine or sarcastic with his comment. "If you hadn't move that blue one three moves back, you would've had it."

"Forget it," Akira said and began placing the pegs back into their holes. "It's a stupid game anyway." Putting it back to its spot on the windowsill, he had it hidden behind the flowers so that it was out of his sight. Catching a glimpse of Hiro's smirk while he took a drink of his root beer, Akira felt a twinge of gladness over what just happened. It was…almost kinda fun, he reasoned.

"So, Akira," Tadashi called and Akira turned to him attentively. "I have a pretty good feeling about Baymax right now that he'll actually work. I hope that you'll be with me to see history in the making tomorrow."

"Of course I will!" Akira said, jumping out of his seat in excitement. Then, an idea popped into his head. "Hey, how about a toast?" he said and raised his mug into the air. "To Tadashi and Baymax! Oh, and, of course, to my lovely and intelligent sister, GoGo!"

"Thanks, you squirt. I thought you've forgotten all about me," she said and both she and Tadashi lifted up their cups.

Then, they all turned to Hiro while he sat with an indifferent look. Akira could tell that the boy was reluctant to join in for some reason, but he quickly lifted his mug up, meeting the group in a clink without a sign of enthusiasm on his face. After they took their drinks, Akira felt bothered by Hiro's attitude. Surely, he would be excited for his brother's work, but all he found was the boy looking downcast at his drink. Something was bothering him, Akira was certain about that.

"Hey, Hiro, are you okay?" Akira asked.

Looking up to find Akira staring at him, he slammed his mug onto the table and looked out of the window like something had caught his attention from outside. Before he could ask again, the food arrived and Hiro took his plate and started digging in. Figuring that Hiro didn't want to talk about it, and that it wasn't any of his business, Akira started eating.

While they ate, Akira overhear Tadashi and GoGo discussing again, this time about any potential schools that Akira could attend. Tadashi mentioned something about Hiro's old high school that was nearby to where GoGo and Akira live, just about walking distance. If Akira were to be honest, he was not looking forward to going back to school.

Even if the bullying would never happen at his new school, which he prayed that would the case, he believed that it he would just coast through it like he had before, unnoticed and quiet. Most of the time, he wasn't bothered by it, but, as Elsa guessed it, he sometimes felt lonely when he was at school, the most when he saw students all hanging around together in their own little islands in the classroom, or in lunch, or at recess while he was left stranded all by himself.

He wished that he could skip all of that and just graduate, like what Hiro managed to do, which made him go to another thought. Since Hiro already graduated from high school last year, that meant that Hiro could be in college or something like that. _But, Tadashi never mentioned that_ , Akira thought. _In fact, he didn't seem to want to talk about Hiro over the past week. Why is that?_

 _And, what was that all about earlier? I make a toast to Tadashi's success and Hiro didn't look excited or interested in it. Is there…something going on between the two? Maybe some sort of sibling rivalry? I can't see Tadashi being jealous of his brother, he has pictures of him all over his lab and they seemed very close. Something must have happened between the two, or it's going on right now. But, what?_

Akira looked at Hiro again, finding the boy continuing eating without ever stopping, wolfing it down like he was running late for some appointment. Even with his cheeks puffed like a chipmunk, Akira couldn't help but smile at him. In some ways, Hiro did kind of remind him of his older brother. He returned to his meal, finishing up the last few bites from his plate.

Then, Akira froze, feeling something touching his ankle in between his pant leg and his shoe over his sock. He sat up straight, unsure of what it could be while it moved up onto his leg above his pants. It felt a little ticklish, but Akira's body shivered. _What the heck is going…?_ Then, Akira quickly turned to Hiro. _He wouldn't?_ he thought while Hiro continued finishing up his plate, unaware of the disapproving stare forming on Akira's face.

Still feeling it moving up his leg, Akira lightly pushed his feet up against Hiro's, shoving it away. Hiro looked up from his food at him in total puzzlement. "What?" he said.

"You know what," Akira growled. "Stop it."

Picking up his mug, Hiro raised his eyebrow. "Stop what?" he said and began drinking as if it was the end of the conversation.

Still feeling the movement climbing up his leg, Akira knew that enough was enough. He mustered as much strength he could and sent his other leg to the rescue, his foot connecting to Hiro's shin in a swift kick. The table bounced, the plates, silverware, and cups rattling with some of its contents spilling onto it while Hiro shot a massive spray of his root beer pointblank into Akira's face. Quaking with a volcanic fury, the bespectacled boy, the brown liquid dripping from his lens, shot daggers at his offender as Hiro coughed loudly.

"What the hell?" GoGo said, looking in shocked at the two boys along with Tadashi. "What just happened?"

"He freakin' kicked me!" Hiro yelled, pointing at Akira.

"Don't play innocent!" Akira yelled back, his rage on the verge on exploding. "You were feeling up my leg!"

Hiro gave Akira an equally as hard of a glare right back. "What the hell are you talking about?" Hiro screamed. Many of the patrons were turning towards them, looking unappreciative of being distracted from their meal.

"Guys, calm down," Tadashi said.

Hiro shot an accusing glare at his brother. "Oh, what, you're taking his side?" he said.

Akira felt the movement continuing up his leg again and it felt as though it was aiming for his groin. "STOP DOING THAT!" Akira stood up, grabbing his half-full mug and flung the orange liquid into Hiro's face. The room went silent, the patrons and the servers all ceasing with their chatter and eating to turn their attention to the scene in various modes of amazement and irritation.

But, none could match Hiro's expression as he looked at the target of his rage and tried to make a grab for Tadashi's plate. "You cocksucking-" but Tadashi pulled it away from Hiro grasp, which the boy shot him a look that said that he was being betrayed by his brother. "What the fu-"

"Uh, Akira, don't move," GoGo said in a worrying tone. "You've got a tarantula on your leg."

Akira froze and looked at his sister in stupefaction. "What?" he said and looked down at his offended left leg. Clinging to the right side of it, a giant red and black, hairy spider was looking straight up right at him.

Fear gripping onto his body, he went stiff, unable to move while a gasp worked its way out of his mouth as a low moan. He swore that he could see his reflection in the spider's eight black eyes. "Someone, please…get it off of me," he managed to say in a tiny voice. The spider inched upward, still coming towards his crotch, and Akira let out a high-pitch squeal in terror.

"I got him buddy," Tadashi said and walked around the table. He pinched his fingers and thumb around the tarantula's abdomen and plucked it off from the horrified boy's leg. "Uh, did someone lose a pet tarantula?" he said, holding up the wiggling spider.

The impromptu audience started groining at the terrible sight of the arachnid moving its eight legs in the air with a few of the women and girls screaming in fright from the sight of it.

"Oh, that's Charlotte," a little voice called out and a little girl in a white, frilly dress and long blond hair skipped up to Tadashi. "I'm sorry for all this," she said in a polite, regal voice. "I was trying to feed her some of my food and I must have accidently left her door open for her to escape."

Tadashi carefully placed the tarantula into the girl's waiting hands and she smiled, happy to have her precious pet back. She then turned towards Akira. "I do apologize for her surprising you like that, but it means that she likes you."

"I-I'll take your word for it," Akira said, stepping behind Tadashi as a barrier.

"Charlotte, you naughty girl, scaring him like that," she chastised her pet and walked back to her already apologizing parents. Soon, everyone resume with their business, but not without some looking underneath their tables to make sure that there weren't any surprises waiting for them.

Still standing behind Tadashi, Akira's anger and fright dissipated only to be replace with a sense of embarrassment. His hands, arms, and face all sticky with the soda and his lens covered in brown stains, he turned to Hiro only to see him turning his face away in disgust. "I…I'm…" Akira's words become stuck in his throat, unable to free them.

"Hey, don't worry about it, man," Tadashi said, patting the boy's shoulders. "Why don't you and Hiro hurry up to the restroom and get wash up?"

"Y-Yeah," Akira said.

Watching Hiro get up from his seat, the boy avoided making eye contact with him, keeping his head pointing in the opposite direction like he wanted to show everyone that he didn't know the crazy boy that splashed soda on him. Akira followed from behind and tried to avoid making eye contact as well, but it was with the patrons and the workers, in which he imagined with certain accuracy that they were giving him odd or disapproving looks for interrupting their peaceful lunch. Out in the store, Hiro followed the direction of the restroom, an arrow pointing down from a traffic light above the opening, and shoved the door inward that it made a loud bang as it hit the wall. Akira couldn't blame him for acting like that, for the way that he treated him by flying off the handle for something that was relatively innocent in hindsight if it had been the case. If Hiro didn't like him before, he must now hate his guts.

At the sink, Hiro took off his jacket and place it on the counter next to the faucet. He turned on the water and began washing his hands and face. "Um, Hiro," Akira began, "I'm sorry-"

"Just save it, okay?" Hiro said without looking up, even keeping his eyes away from the mirror as he reached over for the soap dispenser, pumping the foam into his hands and continued with his washing.

Honoring his request, Akira went silent and reluctantly went over to the other sink next to the offended boy. He took off his glasses, placed them on the counter, and turned on the faucet, which he was grateful that they were regular turning knobs.

Finishing up, Hiro finally turned his head at Akira. "Did you think that I was playing footsies with you or something?" he asked.

"…Yeah," Akira said softly, embarrassed by his answer.

"I guess I can't blame you for thinking that, but seriously, kicking me and then throwing your drink into my face?"

Akira stayed silent, keeping his eyes casted down at the running faucet, unsure if there was a satisfying answer to the question. He reached for the soap dispenser and filled his hand up with the white glob.

Figuring that the conversation would not go anywhere, Hiro finished up and walked away from the sink, going for the hand dryer. Akira rubbed his hands together mindlessly above the sink, depression setting in while the scene back in the restaurant distracted him. He was certain that Tadashi must not like him anymore for treating his brother like that and GoGo must feel embarrassed of him. _I guess getting a new haircut and new glasses can't change the fact that I'm such a pathetic person_ he thought. With tears welling up in his eyes, Akira wished that he could disappear forever.

"Hey, Akira," Hiro called to him, which Akira looked up at the mirror to find the boy looking at him through it and seemed more placid. "Enough with the waterworks, and I don't mean the faucet."

"I wasn't crying," Akira said, his voice sounded a little nasally and he sniffed audibly.

"Whatever. What I mean to say is that I forgive you, alright?" Hiro said hastily, but he sounded sincere with his words. "I can see that you are beating yourself up over it and that you are truly sorry, so…let's just laugh it off, okay?"

Still sniffling a bit, Akira turned around and looked at Hiro, finding it unbelievable that he forgave him that fast. "Okay," he said, nodding. Feeling his tears threatening to fall out to betray him, he reached up with his palms to quickly wipe them away. A burning sensation spread across his eyes and he realized that he hadn't rinsed his hands of the soap. "AHHHH! MY EYES!"

"Whoa, hold on!" Hiro said. Grabbing a hold of the suffering boy by the shoulders, he guided Akira back to the sink. "Hold still."

Cool water gently splashed onto his face, mostly around his eyes and the burning melted away quickly. His tears mixed in with the water and, after blinking a few times, Akira was able to see the blurry image of himself in the mirror, his eyes showing a little hint of redness on the side. "Thank you," Akira said.

"Y-Yeah, no problem," Hiro said, moving back to give the boy some room. Akira quickly rinsed his hands so that there won't be repeat of it happening. "It's kind of hard to believe that you're that girl's brother," he said, putting on his blue jacket. "I thought that a girl like her would be annoyed with a brother like you."

"Maybe after today she will be," Akira said, sounding it as less of a joke than he attended.

"Hey, I didn't mean to imply that she doesn't care about you or anything like that," Hiro said, sounding like he didn't mean to hit a nerve. "She looks like a cool sister."

"Yeah, she is," Akira said and a sad smile formed on his lips. _She doesn't hate me, she doesn't hate me, she doesn't hate me…_ he thought to himself as a mantra, reminding himself of all the good things that she had done for him. He took in a deep breath and tried to calm his emotions down with some degree of success.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a moment while Akira began cleaning his glasses, having the lens underneath the cool water to clear the stains off. "So," Hiro began, "is it true that you had to leave your home because you were having problems at your previous school?"

"Did Tadashi tell you about that?" Akira said, not surprised by it.

"Yeah, but he wouldn't give me the details, says that he didn't think it was in his place to tell me about it. It must be pretty bad if you have to move away. Where did you live?"

"Kentucky."

"Wow, that's pretty far off. So, why come all the way out here to move in with your sister? I mean, it's not a bad place to live, but don't you have any aunts or uncles or grandparents that you could move in with instead?"

"We don't have any other family members, at least not ones that we were close to. My mother had a brother, but he died when he was a teenager, and my dad's an only child. And, my grandparents on both sides had passed away before I was born. So, my sister was not just the best option, she was my only one."

"Yeah, I'm part of a small family myself," Hiro said. "It's just me, Tadashi, and my Aunt Cass, my mother's sister. Both of my parents died in a car accident when I was three. I have bunch of aunts and uncles as well as my grandparents on my father's side, supposedly, but I've never met them. They never even bother to visit us for some reason."

 _Yeah, Tadashi did mention about their parents' death_ Akira thought. "I'm sorry about your parents," Akira said.

"Don't bother yourself. It's not like I miss them or anything," Hiro said, crossing his arms.

Looking at the boy, Akira was surprised to hear how callus he was about it. Hiro was looking away from him, but the mirror revealed a sad look on his face, at least an attempt, but the look of guilt was much more prominent in his eyes while he looked downward and Akira finally understood what Hiro meant. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Akira said, sad for the boy's lack of love for his own parents that he never really knew.

His glasses free of stains and dried, Akira placed them back onto his face, feeling a little cleaner. He moved away from the sink to the hand dryer and rubbed his hand underneath the blowing warm air from the nozzle. Then, from behind him, chuckling sounded off. Akira realized that they were from Hiro and he turned around to find the boy with a toothy grin on his face, showing off that cute little gap in between his front teeth. "What?" Akira asked.

"Just thinking about that priceless look on your face when you saw that tarantula on your leg," he said, still chuckling. "And, that squeal? You sounded like a piglet getting a colonoscopy." His chuckling continued and it sounded like it was ready to blow up into laughter.

"Did you not see how huge that thing was?" Akira said, his face burning from embarrassment. "I hate spiders!"

"Tarantulas are pretty docile, especially those kinds, so you weren't in any real danger."

"Oh, are you some kind of biologist all of the sudden with that big brain of yours?"

"Actually, the technical term would be arachnologist."

"Well, it doesn't change the fact that they are so freaky-looking." Finishing up, he began to feel a little better for some odd reason, like a burden was finally being lifted up from his shoulders, allowing him to relax a little. He let out a relieving sigh and sense of content bubbled up inside of him, like it was telling him that everything was going to be alright now.

"Hiro? Akira?" Tadashi said as he came inside the restroom. "Is everything okay? You two are taking your sweet time getting all cleaned up."

"Yeah, we're just finishing up," Hiro said.

"How are you feeling, Akira?" Tadashi asked.

"I'm fine," Akira said. "Tadashi, I'm sorry for what happened."

"Hey, let's not dwell on it anymore. It wasn't exactly your fault, anyhow."

"But, I did overreact."

"Dude, just drop it already," Hiro said, looking annoyed. "What's done is done. No sense in getting caught up in the past."

"Hiro's right, for once," Tadashi said. "Don't let this ruin your day." Tadashi patted Akira back and offered a kind smile, which Akira returned, glad that the man did not hate him.

Back in the restaurant, they were greeted by the manager, who apologized to them for what happened and offered a free dessert to the boys. Akira tried to refuse it and apologized for his behavior, but the man wouldn't hear of it and personally took their order. Hiro took advantage of it and order an apple a' la mode while Akira ordered a blackberry cobbler. With their order in hand, the manager left the group.

"How are you feeling, Akira?" GoGo asked, petting Akira's head.

"Feeling better now," he said.

"It's been a while since I saw you explode like that," she said smiling.

"Sure surprised me," Tadashi said, chuckling. "Here I thought that you are this quiet kid, but you've got yourself quite the temper. I thought a food fight was about to go off in here."

"And you had to stop me," Hiro said and Akira caught a little smile on the corner of his mouth.

Their desserts arrived quickly along with fresh refills of their sodas and the two began digging in while Tadashi and GoGo finish up with their coffee. It was rather quiet between the four of them while the boys ate, but Akira became surprise again when he felt something pushing up against his foot. Cautious, he looked up from his bowl and found Hiro looking back at him. A small, yet a very sincere smile formed on his lips and he gave Akira a playful wink before he returned to his food.

Akira smiled a bit and he pushed the foot back, a little joke shared between the two. It was ironic, he thought, that that incident probably help break the ice, just a little bit.


	8. Chapter VIII

**Chapter VIII: All Part of the Plan**

Checking the time on his iPhone, it informed Hiro that it was five minutes to one, the time that Akira said that he would meet up with Hiro to go to the arcade. Having to wait for little over an hour for him to finish with his clothes shopping with his sister after lunch almost made Hiro want to abandon his plan, thinking that maybe it wasn't worth it, but seeing the boy's look of anticipation for the trip made Hiro accept it with some reluctance. He hated the idea of waiting, finding it such a waste of time that he could have used it for anything productive like being back home working on Megabot. But, he was the one that offered it in the first place and he might as well finish what he had started. He only hoped that it will be worth the waiting as he was getting so bored that he found his way to some conspiracy site that talked about how some mega industry was promoting matricide based on their plots in their movies. _Maybe the kid is good enough_ he thought, _and just need a little bit of polishing._

However, he wasn't counting on it.

"So, Hiro," Tadashi called out to him, sitting on the other end of the bench.

Hiro let out an exasperated sigh, getting tired of hearing that same line that had become a cue to him that Tadashi was bringing up that same, old discussion. "What?" he said, hoping against hope that he was wrong.

"Have you…given to any more thoughts on visiting the institute?"

Keeping his eyes glued to his screen, he was disappointed that he was right. "Tadashi, I told you a million times, I'm not interested in going."

"Yet?" Tadashi said with a hopeful tone.

" _Ever_ ," Hiro said, stressing the word.

"Then, I take it that you are still eying on getting into bot-battling, huh?"

"Yes, as I have mentioned to you a million times as much."

Tadashi, slumping his shoulders in disappointment, looked as though that he was ready to give up, but Hiro knew better than that as his brother was just as stubborn about his proposal as he was about going into bot-battling. Regaining his posture with an added stern glare, Tadashi turned back to Hiro, but he quickly softened it like he realized that maybe there was a much better approach. "Okay, Hiro, you want to go into bot-battling, that's fine. I'm cool with that," he said. _No, you're not_ Hiro thought scornfully, noticing the distasteful tone that Tadashi had like he tasted poison from his words. "You're…still young, so you have plenty of time. Maybe in…two, three years from now, you'll reconsider it."

"How about never?"

"Come on, man, I can't see you doing it forever. You'll end up getting bored with it eventually, I guarantee it."

Hiro thought that what Tadashi said held some truth to it, but he defiantly ignored it and kept his eyes on the screen, not wanting to give more attention. "Well, I'll never know if that would happen if I never try it, now would I?"

"If that's so, then how about coming over to the institute for an hour? How would you know you won't like it if you don't check the place out? Maybe you'll feel right at home there."

Hiro gave Tadashi a sideway glance, awarding his brother with a wondering look as he considered the proposal. _Maybe in the couple of years…_ he thought, but he promptly destroyed that little seed, silencing any thought that would alter his current plan. "M-Maybe some other time," he hastily said, hoping that it would be good enough for now, but it sounded so genuine that it could come off as either truth or lie.

"Okay," Tadashi said, sounding doubtful as he looked back out front. "Seriously, Hiro. What the hell do you see in bot-battling?"

"It looks fun," Hiro said. "What, it's no different than wrestling, only except it's not fake. They actually compete for real instead of just putting on a show."

"Yeah, but what do you hope to get out of it? Okay, a bit of fame and fortune, sure, but I'm talking about long term. It may be fine for the majority of guys who can competently build a robot, but not you. You are way better than that."

"Tadashi-"

"You shouldn't be wasting your talents on something so frivolous."

Lowering his iPhone away from his face and looking at Tadashi, Hiro figured that he should take out his big guns. "It's something that I want to do, okay? I don't want to lock myself in some classroom where somebody spout out stuff that I already know. Do you have any idea how boring that is? That was how my four years of high school was like for me. Not to mention the other bullshit that it has to offer," he said with a look of grimace on his face.

"It's nothing like high school, I can promise you that," Tadashi said. "I know it was a pretty difficult time for you, especially when you were moved up from elementary school. But the people at the institute, both the students and faculty, they are some of the smartest people I've ever knew and the most encouraging. I promise, they wouldn't care about your age. In fact, they all know about you already and are excited about having you there."

Going silent, Hiro's mind went over the idyllic notion that Tadashi was selling him, but he quickly forced it out of his mind, not wanting to be tricked into it. "I'm sorry, Tadashi," he said, truly meaning what he said. "My mind's all made up. And, besides, what about Aunt Cass? She's already paying a fortune for your tuition. If I decide to go right now, it might bankrupt her shop. If I do decide to go there in the future, I can save up some of the winnings from the bot-battling-"

"I know the perfect way where you can get in on a full scholarship where you don't have to pay a cent," Tadashi said. "But, you have to get on it right away-"

"This conversation is over, Tadashi," Hiro said, looking back to his screen. "I'm not going and that's my final say on the matter. So, don't bring it up ever again."

"Hiro-"

"I said, 'Drop it!'" Hiro yelled. "Please, Tadashi, I'm getting sick of this! I-I don't know any other way I have to spell it out for you." With a huff, he returned back to his screen trying to get rid of everything that he had heard so that it would not germinate in his brain.

"I don't want to think how Mom and Dad would feel if they see you like this," Tadashi whispered.

It sounded as if it was to himself, but Hiro did not appreciate it. "Fuck you, Tadashi!" he screamed and the people walking nearby all stopped for a second. They looked at the two brothers in surprise before they resume with their stroll like nothing had interrupted them, but Hiro didn't care if they were listening or not. To Hiro, Tadashi had just crossed the line. "Don't try to guilt me into it! If I want to go, I'll go on my own term, alright? So, for the last time, let it go!"

Letting out a defeated sigh, Tadashi crossed his arms and held a look of grimace. "Fine," he said and looked away from Hiro.

Seeing that look of disapproval on his brother's face only made Hiro feel even more frustrated in his inability to get Tadashi to understand his decision and to make him stop with his hounding. Taking another peak at the time at the top of his screen, it read "2:58." _Please, hurry up and save me from this bullshit_ he thought, wanting to see Akira for the first time.

"So, what do you think of him?" Tadashi asked calmly.

Looking at Tadashi from his peripheral vision, Hiro wondered if the conversation was safe for him to engage in. "Who, Akira?" he asked, to which Tadashi nodded in confirmation. He seemed genuinely interested in what Hiro had to say. "A little weird, I guess, but not a bad guy."

"Okay," Tadashi said, sounding indifferent. "You know, I'm surprised that you actually invited him to come with you to the arcade."

"Okay," Hiro said, trying to display ignorance to the implicating tone that Tadashi held. A bad feeling told him that Tadashi could be on to him.

"I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just that, at first, you didn't want to meet with him, saying that you are too busy making your Megabot, but once I mentioned that he enjoys playing video games, you started asking me if he's any good, particularly with fighting games. When I said that I don't know, you changed your mind and decide to meet with him, and yet, you still act as if you were forced to come against your will." Looking back at Hiro, held a raised eyebrow, showing his suspicion of the boy.

 _Crap, he knows something's up_ Hiro thought. While Tadashi's IQ doesn't come close to his, he can read people like books, Hiro especially. "So, what?" Hiro said, attempting to deflate that suspicion. "I also enjoy playing game myself, you know that. I just…want to play against someone who could put up a challenge."

"Really?" Tadashi said, his voice still holding on to his doubt.

"Yes," Hiro said, managing to not sound superficial with his answer.

Tadashi must had caught it and he relaxed his posture, nodding favorably. "Alright," he said. "I know that there's this tournament happening in a next couple of months, the _BlazBlue_ one, and I was wondering if you were going to have him enter it if he was good enough. I know it has cash prizes for the top three and you want it for your bot-battling career."

"Well, I've already entered it. If he wants to, he can, but…"

"But, what?" Tadashi said.

"From what he told me, it doesn't sound like he had much exposure to the game."

"Okay, so? Is that one of your qualification to have him hang out with you?"

"N-No," Hiro said, offended by Tadashi's words. "It's just…" Then, he realized that Tadashi had just wiggled the truth out of Hiro as he smirked back at the boy. "Okay, fine, yes. I was hoping that he would be, quote unquote, 'good enough' at the game that he can compete in the tournament. But, like I said, he sounded like he doesn't know much about it, saying that he only played it for the story. Even if he trained himself over the summer, I doubt he could even make it pass the initiative."

"Maybe. But, what does this have to do about being friends with you?"

"That's insignificant."

"Insignificant?" Tadashi said, genuinely shocked by Hiro's choice of word, which Hiro quickly regretted. "Akira is trying to be friendly with you while you formulate your grandmaster plan that revolves around whether he can play as well as you want him to. You want to use him, like some robot you created for your own gain, but if he turns out not the way you wanted, you'll just scrap him."

"Seriously, what is your deal with this Akira kid?" Hiro said. "Look, I don't have any hard feelings about him. Yeah, he kicked me and threw his drink into my face because he thought I was touching him, but I don't think he's a bad guy, like I said. This is nothing personal, alright? I swear, sometimes I think you want to marry him."

"It's just that-"

"He had a hard time at his old school, you said that, I get it," Hiro said. "But, I don't understand why you are so committed in helping him out like this."

"I'm not just doing this for him," Tadashi said, sounding like he was finally admitting something that he was hiding for such a long time. "Hiro, I'm worried about you."

"Worried? About me?" Hiro said, incredulous by Tadashi's admission.

Nodding, Tadashi scooted closer, his expression much softer, giving Hiro that same look that Hiro hadn't seen since he was a little kid. "Akira…he kind of reminded me of you when you were younger. You always have this…look of wonder when you saw something amazing like…like you seeing a butterfly come out of its cocoon, or wondered how a toy car moves with a remote control. You were always curious about the world and want to learn everything. And…I was surprise by how fast you managed to comprehend things, no matter how complicated it was. I guess that was my first inkling that there was something special about you.

"But, you were so open to people, very friendly and…wanting to share your discovers with them. And, when we found out about your intellect, I thought that maybe it would be for the best that you move up a bit sooner. But, now…sometimes, Aunt Cass and I, wondered if it would have been better that you never had this," he said as he poked Hiro's forehead "then you wouldn't have to move up to high school so fast and…ended up lonely since I went to college and hardly ever home. I wish…that I had seen what you were becoming, to let you know that there are people that still care for you. I wish that I had been a better brother to you when you needed me the most." Slumping in his seat, Tadashi looked at the younger boy, a regretful look painted on his face.

Hiro waved it away, finding it a little weird. "Come on, Tadashi," he said. "There's no sense in worrying about what happened and what we could have done to make this better today. Besides, I made it through high school intact, and if I made it through that okay, then I'll be fine. Just you see, I'll be the greatest that the bot-battling world has ever seen. With my Megabot, I'm going to change everything."

Letting out a long sigh that seemed to had come from the very depths of his soul, Tadashi nodded, trying, yet failing, to share with Hiro's enthusiasm. "You…you do that," he said. "Just…when it comes to Akira, please, try to be friends with him. Don't just dump him because he wasn't good at some stupid video game."

"Alright, alright. Friendship is Magic and all that junk. I'll…invite him over to our place from time to time. Course, once he starts school, I don't see how we could continue with it."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Tadashi said.

"Oh, come on, you're making this sound like something out of a Shakespeare tragedy," Hiro said in a joking matter. "What, did Akira try to off himself or something?" Looking at Tadashi's expression, he was surprise to see his brother's face turn pale as if an unpleasant thought had just invaded his mind. And, Hiro felt his gut pushed in as if it was punched by the realization. "Wait, are you serious?" he said, his full surprise painted onto his face.

"Tadashi! Hiro!"

The brothers looked up at the direction of the call and found Akira and GoGo walking towards them in a hurried state, each carrying a shopping bag. "Don't bring it up until Akira is ready to talk about," Tadashi whispered into Hiro's ear, a threatening tone that surprised Hiro. Then, he got up, putting a smile like nothing serious had happened and waved to Akira and GoGo as they approached. "Glad that you guys can make it," Tadashi said.

"Sorry for being a little late," Akira said, smiling sheepishly, which Hiro found a little off-putting. "I wanted to ride on the roller coaster after we were done shopping and figured that we had time, but the line went a little slower than I thought."

"It's all good. We just got here ourselves. Right, Hiro?"

Hiro hardly heard what was being said until he caught the three looking at him, waiting for his reply. "Uh, yeah, sure," he said, scratching his head, a feeling of discomfort creeping up. _Did he really…tried to…take his own life?_ the thought conquered his mind, threatening to overload his comprehension. It just seemed so impossible to him because of Akira's disposition. Sure, he seemed a little uncomfortable in his own skin, but he was rather opened with Tadashi and looked so happy.

But, then, he remembered how emotional the boy was back in that restroom. He looked like he was trying his damnedest not to break down in front of Hiro, ready to explode like a depth charge if Hiro hadn't forgiven him. For some reason, Hiro felt that he had a peak at the boy's real psyche. But, at the same time, seeing that smile of his while he talked to Tadashi and his sister, it looked pretty real, like he truly was happy being with them. _Is he bipolar or something?_ Hiro thought.

"Are you ready, Hiro?" Akira asked him.

Kicked out of his thoughts, Hiro looked at Akira again, waiting for him to respond. "Yeah, sure," he said as he got up from the bench. "It's just right over there," he pointed, their destination not far from them.

"Alright, then," Tadashi said. "Here, Akira, I'll take that for you," the man offered, which Akira looked at him with confusion, especially when Tadashi didn't wait for his response and took the shopping bag out of his hand. "Okay, you two play nice now," he said.

"Huh?" the two boys said in unison.

"Oh, I need to get back to the institute to finish up with the last of the updates for Baymax," Tadashi said.

"Okay," Akira said, accepting the answer quite easily, almost to the point of naivety, Hiro thought.

"And, I need to go with him," GoGo said and Akira looked at her with shock written on his face.

"W-What?" he said. "Why?"

"He asked me if I can help him out a bit. Meaning that he probably wants a guinea pig other than himself," she said, looking at Tadashi with an accusing glare, but the man wasn't fazed by it as he gave a big smile.

"So, it's just…me and him?" Akira said, which Hiro detect nervousness in his tone while he gave him a sideway glace. Whatever the meaning behind it, he clearly did not like the idea, and so did Hiro.

"Don't worry, it'll be just a couple of hours," GoGo said. "Just stay together." However, Hiro could see that she seemed reluctant. Then, she turned her attention to Hiro. "Mind that we step aside so that we can talk in private?"

Before Hiro could answer, she hooked her arm around his neck and pulled him, rather forcibly, away from Akira and Tadashi, far enough that they wouldn't be able to hear anything. They hid behind a tree, with the girl's arm constricting his neck, keeping him from running away or for him to even turn his head away as the punk girl glared down at him, like flamethrowers were coming out of her violet eyes.

"I want to make this absolutely clear that I do not like you," she said. "At all."

"Okay," Hiro said, unsure of what was about to happen.

"However, since Tadashi is one of my best friends, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he says that his little brother is a much better person than what I have seen thus far. But, I can't get this crazy feeling, like a little itch that I can't reach, that you are planning something that involves my little brother, in that you want to use him." Her eyes tightened as if to emphasized that she believed what she just said and Hiro felt a little stupid of being so obvious. "However, given that you have been patient with Akira, especially with what happened back in the restaurant, I'll put my full trust into this stupid little plan Tadashi cooked up."

 _So, Tadashi did plan this out_ Hiro thought. He mentally slapped himself in the face for not seeing it coming.

"So, let me make this perfectly clear. In case you haven't noticed, I love my brother, very dearly, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that he has a happy life here. Which includes him having good friends. And, right now, I don't see you as a good candidate. So, when I come back in a couple of hours, if I discover that you did try to use him for your own gain and nothing more come out of it, we're going to have issues with each other. Do I make myself crystal clear, Hiro Hamada?"

Nervously nodding, Hiro couldn't help but to believe that the threat was 100 percent genuine with the way that she was staring at him with such intensity that he swore that he saw pure evil in them. "Y-Yes, Ma'am," he said in a tiny voice to clarify his answer as to not having any sort of miscommunication.

"Good," she said and released him out of her hold and the two went back where Akira and Tadashi waited for them.

"Hiro, are you okay?" Akira asked. "You looked as though you crossed paths with a serial killer."

"Nah, I'm good," Hiro said with some beads of sweat sliding down the side of his face.

"Well, I better get going," Tadashi said.

"I'll see you in a bit, okay?" GoGo said, giving Akira a hug. "Remember, don't go anywhere else without Hiro."

"Yes, Mom," Akira said in a joking manner, but he seemed to be taking her command seriously. With a little rub of his head, she turned and followed Tadashi, both walking away from the two boys. They both stood and watch them disappear into the crowd.

Standing next to each other, they both looked as though they had no idea what to do next. With their older siblings abandoning them for a while, it felt a little awkward to them to be alone together when they just met. But, Hiro decided to take the initiative since there wasn't much choice as far as he could see. "So, you want to get going?" Hiro asked.

"S-Sure," Akira said. He took one last look at where their siblings disappear, but they already were out of their sight. He looked nervous, but he put on a brave face and turned towards the arcade. "Let's go," he said and the two started to walk side-by-side.

As they near the entrance, with the name "Rumble in the Arcade" flashing in neon green and red inside a rectangle of light bulbs as they flashed around its perimeter, they were unable to say anything to each other, seemingly preferring the silence. Hiro supposed that Akira wanted his sister, or even Tadashi, to be with them, to give him the courage. Truth be told, Hiro wished that Tadashi was with them, as well. _I mean, what can I say to some kid that nearly committed suicide not long ago?_ He didn't want to say anything that could potentially offend him and get into big trouble with his scary sister.

"You know, I've never been to an arcade before," Akira said.

Hiro turned to the boy, more in surprise with him speaking than with his statement. "Really?" he said automatically.

"Yeah. GoGo told me that there was one back home, where I came from, but it shut down before I was born. So, I'm pretty excited that I'm going to one."

Akira flashed him a smile that showed that excitement of his and Hiro couldn't help but to find the expression rather cute. "Yeah, I used to go there all the time with Tadashi when I was in elementary school as well as with some of my friends back then," he said. "This is my first time back since…" _since I skipped grades_ he finished with his thoughts. That was such a long time ago, feeling almost like a lifetime had flown by, but he could still remember how his friends reacted when he told them that he was going into high school instead of going to the next grade with them because of his high intellect. They were so excited for him and talk about how they'll still hang out together, but that never happened. As soon as he entered high school in the 9th Grade, he never saw them again because he went to school in the city itself, to one of those prestigious school. He remembered being so sad each day when he could even contact them. He was even sadder that he never got to see her again, his very first friend that he met in kindergarden. _I wonder what she's doing right now_ he wondered.

"Hiro?"

Getting pulled out of his thoughts, Hiro looked over at Akira and found the boy staring at him with a concerned look. "I was…getting a little nostalgic," he said. "I haven't seen my friends in such a long time."

Akira nodded understandably. "Yeah, I sometimes get that way, as well," he said, but a melancholic look formed on his face. "But, sometimes, I wondered if…if it was as good as I remembered it."

"Hmm?" Hiro looked at him, wondering what he meant.

"Whenever I think back, as far back as I could remember, I felt so simple and I was constantly happy all the time that I couldn't remember any time that I was hurt. And, I don't mean getting hurt like falling down and scrapping my knee. I mean, really hurt. Right here," he pointed to his heart. "You know that people love to think about the past with such fondness, like it has all the best moments and that it could never get any better. But, sometimes, it feels so artificial."

"Artificial?" Hiro said. "How so?"

"I don't know. It just feels…like I had lived a lie. Or, I guess more accurately, like the truth was hidden from me all this time and I never it existed. Until it was too late when I couldn't do anything about it. When it was used against me."

 _Used against you?_ Hiro thought. _Don't bring it up until Akira is ready to talk about_. Tadashi's words echoed in his mind, reminding him of the uneasy truth that he had learned about the boy. A twinge of pity stole into his heart and Hiro couldn't help but to feel said for the boy.

"I'm sorry," Akira said, forcing a smile. "I must sound like an idiot just then. I don't even know what I'm even talking about."

"No, it's no problem," Hiro said. "I don't mind it. I like a little bit of philosophy. It helps stimulate the brain."

Akira smiled at him once more, and it felt more genuine, like he had been complimented. But, seeing it only made Hiro feel more curious about what had happened at the boy's old school. But, should he ask him straight out or just drop it, that it wasn't any of his business? They only knew each other for about an hour. But, he was becoming curious about this boy, like mathematical problem that he couldn't decipher but is intrigued to figure out the answer. But, the only way for that to happen was to get him to tell him. Would he be open about it?

 _Maybe I should hold on to it for now_ Hiro thought. They were nearing the arcade as the noises grew loud as they stepped inside. For now, Hiro felt like playing some games.


	9. Chapter IX

**Chapter IX: Old Friend, New Friends**

The air inside was mixed with the sounds of explosions, lasers, yells, and beeps, churned in a cesspool of the exhilarating screams from the many patrons while they played on the various arcade machines that were either lined around the long perimeter or on the more elaborate machines set up in the middle of the room that require more physicality. Titles of both modern and classic highlighted the collections from the top of the machine, and each one sported their own television hanging from the ceiling, exhibiting gameplay for any passing spectator to watch easily without bothering the people playing.

A wave of nostalgia washed over Hiro as he looked everywhere, noting the subtle changes that it had went through during the years that he had been absent, but it still reeked of the same atmosphere, which he was very glad. Looking over at Akira, he caught the boy looking around with a sense of awe in his expression. It was as if he had walked into heaven, his mouth agape in wonder and eyes ready to pop out of his sockets from behind his glasses. It was rather amusing to Hiro to see him act like a little kid who gets impressed easily. He figured that Akira, being from a smaller town, was not used to something like this. But, it's kind of adorable he had to admit.

"We need to head over there," Hiro pointed to the front of them where a glass counter sit far in the back, revealed by an overhead florescent light.

Standing behind said counter was a large, bulky man, wearing a red shirt and overalls with arms as big as school buses, something that Hiro first thought when he first met the man as a little kid. But, with his pudgy finger, he gracefully pushed some of the several prizes in their place on the shelves with ease, his back to the two boys as they approached. However, as if sensing them coming, he turned around and found them and welcomed them with a huge smile.

"Hiro Hamada?" the big man called out quickly and quickly stepped around the counter. "My man, what a surprise! I thought for sure that you've giving up on this place I haven't seen you for so long!" Holding up his huge palm, Hiro took the bait and gave it a hearty slap of a high-five.

However, it was like slapping a brick wall. "Hey, Ralph," Hiro said as he rubbed his hand to relieve the pain, but he was glad to see that the big guy was still around.

"Oh, man, look how big you've gotten. I remember when you were this tall," Ralph said as he placed his hand perpendicular to Hiro's chest, just below his chin. "Well, maybe not by much. So, how you've been? Last I heard, you were getting ready to jump into high school. How's that been treating you?"

"Done with it."

"Oh, that's right. You were in the news. Man, time sure does fly. So, where's that useless brother of yours?"

"You just missed him. He bailed right before we came in, saying something about needing to finish his college project."

"Yeah, he's been pretty busy with it. From what he told me, it's been giving him some trouble."

Hiro looked at the big man with surprise. "Trouble?" he said.

"Yeah. Course, I'm sure he's told you everything about it."

"Uh, well, maybe not everything," Hiro said. He knew that Tadashi had been working on whatever it was ever since he started his schooling at the institute, but he never heard anything about it from him.

"And, it's a little weird not seeing the two of you together. You guys were inseparable that you needed a crowbar to get the two of you away from one another."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Hiro began to feel awkward, remembering the conversation he just had with Tadashi. Sure, the two used to be very close. They used to do everything together, but now…Hiro felt a twinge of sadness that things have truly changed over the years. "Yeah, we were," he finally said as if in admittance.

"But, I see that you didn't come alone," the big man said, turning his attention to Akira. "Hey," he waved.

"H-Hello," Akira said quickly, waving nervously back, but smiled politely.

Glad for the change of topic, Hiro turned to the nervous boy and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Ralph, this is Akira," he said. "He just moved here to the city recently. And, get this. This is his very first time coming to an arcade."

A loud gasp came out of the big man's mouth, his eyes wide open in shock as if he had heard the impossible. "Noooo? Is this your very first time inside an arcade? Absolutely?"

Nodding, Akira looked embarrassed by the fact. "Yes," he said meekly.

"Well, I am honored to have your first experience!" Ralph said, his huge smile coming back. "Welcome to _Rumble in the Arcade_! And, as a gift for any new customer, the first twenty-five credits are on the house!"

"T-Thank you very much, sir!" Akira said, bowing.

Hiro looked in surprised by the unusual reaction as did Ralph as the big man scratched his head with a cocked eyebrow. "Where exactly did he moved here from?" Ralph whispered to Hiro.

"Kentucky," Hiro said.

"He's not from an important family, is he?"

"No, as far as I know."

"Well, I'll take it," Ralph said, sounding as if deciding it was a welcoming change. "Hey, Akira, right?" he pulled the boy out from his bow and having him to look up. "There's no need to be acting all formal around me. It's a little weird, honestly. Just call me 'Ralph,' okay?"

"Um, right," Akira said, scratching his cheek while his face flushed a bit. "Thank you…Ralph," he said like he was testing the sound of it and decided that he liked it as he smiled at the big man.

Chuckling, Ralph placed his big hand over Akira's head and rubbed it gently, to which Akira looked appreciative of as his smile became more relax. Hiro couldn't help but to think that if Akira had a tail like a puppy, it'd be wagging at full throttle.

"Well, now that introductions are over, how about I get you two your new accounts?" Ralph asked as he walked back to the counter.

"I should still have my old account," Hiro said.

"Nope. We've got a new rule now that any accounts that have not been used for a period of time will be automatically purged from of the system."

"What?" Hiro nearly screamed and tears start to form in his eyes. "But, what about my…?"

"However, I actually saved it in the off chance that you might return," Ralph said. He took a card from the side and swiped down the card reader on the computer. After a beep, he handed it to Hiro. "Now, you're back in business."

"Oh, thank God," Hiro said, a sense of relief overpowering him that years of his hard work hadn't gone to waste.

After Akira got his new card with his first free credits, Ralph explained that most of the games will start a new game with five credits, one to continue. From here on out, Akira will have to purchase more credits to play, in which he can accumulate points to win prizes showcased on the shelves, ranging from easers of cartoon characters for a single point to game systems, modern and retro, for a couple of thousand. However, Hiro could tell that Akira was getting eager to start playing as he refused to look at the many prizes offered. And so did Ralph as he dropped the lecture and let the two loose.

"Oh, man, everything's taken," Akira said as he looked around the room with no vacant machine in sight.

"Yeah, but that shouldn't be a problem," Hiro said. "We can just jump in."

"Jump in? But, wouldn't that be rude?"

"Nah. Generally, the people here don't mind it at all. In fact, people always like to play against anybody, even total strangers. That's the whole point of this place."

"Well, okay," Akira said, but he seemed to find the concept unbelievable. "Since you know this place pretty well, how about you pick the first one."

"Okay, sure," Hiro said, sensing an opportunity. He immediately knew what he wanted, but he still pretended to look around, scanning the room as if undecided. After his little lecture from the scary sister, Hiro was convinced that Akira was, at least, suspicious of his intention, if he wasn't informed from her. However, as much as Hiro was eager to see Akira's current skills at the game for him to make a determination, he was beginning to feel eager to just get started on actually playing a game. Not having been in here for over four years, his nostalgia was going haywire, raving so much that he could barely contain his excitement. But, he managed to keep himself calm and quickly found what he was looking for.

"That one," Hiro said with conviction as he pointed at the _BlazBlue_ arcade machine. However, Akira looked at it with hesitance. "What?"

"They look pretty engrossed with it," Akira said.

Hiro looked back at it and quickly noticed what Akira was talking about. A sizable group of older teenagers, maybe about half a dozen or so, where huddled around the machine, cheering loudly as they looked up at the flashy combos being performed by Ragna the Bloodedge against Jin Kisaragi. Studying the group a little more, Hiro found their outfits a little off for the setting. The guys were all in their dress pants and different colored button up shirts with their ties loosen up and their top callers unbuttoned, almost looking like business suits while the girls were wearing some very fashionable clothing and accessories, in dresses that stop just below the hips, jewelry on their ears, neck, and wrists. It was almost like they just arrived from a prom dance.

"Maybe we can come back to it some other time," Akira said. He was becoming hesitant.

"No, I'm sure that they wouldn't mind if we join in," Hiro said, but he was beginning to doubt his words.

While Akira looked at them apprehensively, he nodded. "Okay," he said and the two head on over to their choice.

While they headed over to the obnoxious group with their screaming and yelling that seemed to be bothering other patrons, Hiro had the time to look up at the screen and observe the gameplay and immediately noticed something off about it. It seemed that Ragna has already won the first match, but his health didn't seem like it was touched at all while Jin's was already more than half-way down, and the match was only 40 seconds away from ending. The person controlling Jin was, maybe understandably, taking their time, but so was Ragna's player as the white-haired sword fighter just kept his distance. Nobody was making a move and, yet, everybody just continued cheering nonstop as if they were witnessing the most intense and most awesome fight they ever saw. Then, Jin activated one of his Distortion Attacks, but it was out of range that it completely missed Ragna, which gave Ragna an opening to attack, charging in with a heavy attack. The crowd's cheering became louder and Hiro suddenly realized that Jin's player was throwing the match for some reason. _These guys are total fakers_ , Hiro thought, becoming unimpressed.

They stopped just outside of the group, both boys standing behind a young girl who is much shorter than them, quite possibly even younger, wearing a tiara of some kind on top of her long, magenta hair, but did not noticed them as she cheered the loudest. Figuring that this was his idea, Hiro took the initiative and cleared his throat in an attempt to grab their attention. Either they didn't hear it with all of their cheering or ignored it so as they wouldn't miss what might happen during the bogus match. "Um, excuse me?" he called out. "Mind if we call the next match?"

Jin finally made a hit, taking off a tiny chunk of health from Ragna. The entire group ceased with their cheering, still looking at the screen as the two opponents halted, and wore shunned expression as if something impossible had occurred. The kid controlling Jin stepped back from the machine and turned to his opponent with obvious fear on his face.

"I-I'm sorry, Nathen, I didn't mean-" the boy said, but the guy held up his hand to silence him. Then, he proceed with the match, continuously mashing the button to lay down the punishment on Jin, depleting his health quickly before the timer could run out. With Jin out of commission and the game declaring Ragna as the winner, the crowd returned to their cheering, congratulating him as if the boy as just won the fight of the century.

"Something's…weird about this," Akira whispered to Hiro.

"What gave you that idea?" Hiro said, a scowl forming on his face. He recalled a scene from a cartoon he watched as a kid where some loud-mouth queen sent one of her subjects to be executed all because he missed a ball during a game of croquet.

With the Game Over scene popping up, the guy playing Ragna finally turned around and brought his attention onto Hiro and Akira. He only stood a few inches taller than them, in fact, Hiro noticed that this guy is shorter than all of the other guys and even some of the girls. His red hair was combed over but a little messy as if he had got out of a crazy business meeting, but he ran his hand through it to fix it up a little bit. He aimed his eyes slightly down at Hiro, fury slowly burning. "What did you just say, kid?" he said.

Obviously, he's the leader judging how the others just stood by, but Hiro wasn't going to be intimidated by him. "I was wondering if you'll let me and my friend here play a match or two?" Hiro said, trying to sound as friendly as possible. However, he was having a bad vibe as everyone all just looked at each other, signaling with their smirks like it was the most ridiculous thing they ever heard.

"As if," the girl with the tiara said, walking up to Hiro. She's obviously a little younger given how short she was, just reaching at his chin. "Like we'll let a couple of losers join us."

"Speak for yourself, you little brat," Hiro said.

"Hiro, be nice," Akira said, almost in a light reprimanding manner.

"Oh, come on, you're going to take it from her?" Hiro said. Looking back at the girl, he could see that she wasn't happy with him calling her a "brat." _Good_ he thought.

"It's okay, Diamond," the guy, who is called Nathen, said, placing his arm around the girl, making the girl's hurt expression disappear and replaced with a satisfactory look. She promptly stuck her tongue out at Hiro. "As she said, we can't have losers like you two to ruining our fun. It'll just cramp our style."

"Oh, don't worry. We don't want to play against you since you won't provide much of a challenge."

Nathen's eyes widen along with everyone else. Seems Hiro had just struck a very obvious cord. "Uh, Hiro?" Akira said. "Let's just find another game we can play."

"You'd be smart to listen to your boyfriend," Nathen said, his tone becoming threatening.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Ralph called out. Embarrassed to be causing any sort of trouble after his return, but Hiro was glad that the big man would get himself involved in this and show this kid whose boss.

"Mind your fucking business!" Nathen yelled back. _Oh, now you're in trouble_ Hiro thought with a smirk as a delicious image of him getting kicked out appeared in his mind.

Then, after a couple of seconds, he realized that nothing had happened. No sounds of stomping feet or even a comeback. Confused, Hiro turned around to find the big man still stuck at his counter, his attention back to his merchandise as if he didn't notice anything.

"Since you're new here, you should know that I now run this motherfucker," Nathen said. The girl still hanging off of him stuck out her tongue once again and the lackeys all gathered around, showing a bit more confidence in their loyalty to him. "So, I'll let this little transgression slide. But only if you get the fuck out of my sight by the count of five. One…"

"Hiro," Akira said, pulling on the boy's arms, but Hiro stood still, a little shocked by what just happened.

"Two…"

"Fine," Hiro said, feeling defeated. There was no other option that would help him, so there was nothing he could do about this asshole.

"Good. Now, be good little boys and go play something more appropriate for your age like _Whac-a-Mole_ and leave this to the big kids."

Akira still pulling on his arm, Hiro felt like he could still get the last word. "We will be playing that game before this day is over," he said and promptly turned around before another word can be said from the jerk. But, all he heard was jeering as the two retreated, making him feel even angrier. "Assholes," he said under his breath. Looks like there isn't much variety with high schoolers.

"So much for people being _cool_ ," Akira said, looking disdainfully at the group as they resume with their game. Dejected, the two returned back to the counter where Ralph looked away as if in shame.

"Welcome back," the big man said, his cheerfulness gone while he propped his head up with a distant look.

However, Hiro felt more biffed as he was reminded of questionable Ralph's action. "What was that all about?" he asked.

"Sorry about that, man," Ralph said as he looked ashamed of himself that help evaporated Hiro's annoyance. "I guess I should've told you a couple of things that had happened here while you were gone. You know who that guy is?"

"I think his name is Nathen or something," Hiro said which Akira nodded in confirmation.

"Nathen Prescott, to be exact," Ralph said as if he had said something distasteful.

Stunned, Hiro turned back at the group one last time just to see the jerk "winning" another match. "Wait, he's a Prescott?"

"Yep," Ralph said.

"Prescott?" Akira asked.

"One of the richest families in the city, and possibly in the country, if not the world. They're so rich that they make the Drampf Family look homeless. So, what happened?"

"Well, long story short, I kicked that…" Ralph stopped himself, looking careful with his words. "He had a truffle with another patron all because he lost at a game. If you hadn't notice, the kid's a sore loser. If he lost, he would either blame the game for not being programed properly or accuse the person he's playing against of cheating. Well, at that same game, someone trounced him over and over again, and instead of being a good sport or admit that he suck at it, he blamed that guy for cheating and even me for getting a faulty game. And, his anger got the best of him and started attacking the guy. As self-defense, the kid beat his ass and I threw the brat out for causing a disturbance.

"Well, his daddy wasn't very happy about it, saying that I have a 'bias' tendency towards privilege kids. Course, I didn't know who he was at the time, but, as ridiculous as that sounds, the point was made with my boss that I should've kicked that other kid out, even if he was defending himself. So, now, to make sure that I don't get sued for it, I have to let him and his friends play in here and to never, ever touch him without a very good reason."

Crossing his arms, Hiro felt sorry for Ralph and bad that he directed his anger at the man. "Wow," he said in disbelief. "That's pretty stupid."

"Yeah. That was about a month ago and he spends much of his time on that particular game, hogging it all to himself and his _buddies_. And, I don't understand why she's hanging around with him. She used to be a very sweet girl."

"What, that brat of his?" Hiro said, looking at the girl as she jumped into the air, screaming the loudest out of everybody. With the way those two carried around each other, Hiro could guess what was going on between the two.

"He must be very insecure about himself," Akira said.

"Understatement of the century," Hiro said. "But, he has his dad's money to make him feel happy anytime. Right now, we are back where we started."

"Well, how about I throw in a suggestion?" Ralph asked.

"Like what?" Hiro said.

Ralph looked around as if to make sure that nobody was close enough to them and leaned over the counter, his huge palm placed around his mouth to block any spying eyes. "You two can keep a secret, at least for a couple more weeks?" he whispered. Intrigued, Hiro and Akira nodded fervently and leaned forward towards him. "In my secret lair behind me, I got the newest arcade machine, came in this early morning. Nobody knows of its existence except for me and other kids that are already in there, playtesting it. For the next couple of weeks, I can let you guys in to play to your hearts content because, right now, it is free to play."

While it wasn't what Hiro had in mind, it did sound interesting. A secret game? "What is it?"

" _Mario Kart_ ," Ralph said carefully, as if it was the most dangerous word in the world.

But, Hiro only raised his eyebrows in disappointment. " _Mario Kart_? Are you serious?"

"Well, Akira looks interested."

Turning at the boy in question, Hiro found Akira with wide, sparkling eyes, almost like he's in a euphoric daze. "Come on, Hiro, let's try it!" he softly said in obvious excitement. "And, we can play it for free."

"What's the point when we can play it at home and have just as much fun?" Hiro said, not interested in the concept of a _Mario Kart_ arcade. Unless… "Wait a minute," Hiro said as he saw Ralph's dropping his poker face when a little smirk formed on the big man's lips. A sense of excitement began to blossom. "Don't tell me…"

"It comes with life-size kart and bike peripherals," Ralph answered.

With that confirmation, Hiro's heart grew three whole sizes. "What does that mean?" Akira asked, a questionable look on his face.

"That means we can actually drive in the game," Hiro said, trying to contain his excitement. But, seeing that Akira wasn't following, he pointed to another racing game that carried a life-size car out in the middle of the room. "You see that? We can do that with the _Mario Kart_ arcade game that Ralph has in the back room."

Then, Akira's eyes went even wider. "WHAT!?"

"SHHHH!" both Hiro and Ralph said as they covered the boy's mouth, their face scrunched up in nervousness as they waited for any potential eyes looking their way. None did and they released Akira's mouth.

"Sorry," Akira whispered very low, but his excitement hadn't drop a bit as he giggly hopped. Hiro couldn't blame him as a long-awaited dream had come true for him, but he kept his face in business like fashion.

"So, I take this as a maybe?" Ralph said and the two boys quickly nodded their heads.

Instructing them to hand him their cards, Ralph quickly typed on his computer screen and swiped their cards. "There, that'll will allow you access to the back until the big reveal. Play safe, have fun, and behave yourselves. I don't want to come in there to find any funny business happening," he said, half-jokingly and half-seriously. With a slight nod to his right, Hiro and Akira went around the counter and went behind the fake, camouflaged black wall where they find the door that they wouldn't notice if it weren't for the golden doorknob shining. With one swipe of Hiro's card through the card reader, the unlocking sound told them that the two had gotten permission to enter and Hiro turned the knob of the door.

Inside, six identical machines lined up in the middle of the room, three on each side facing one another. Six life-size karts, each one standing in front of a wide-screen television, looked as though they were pulled out from the _Mario Kart_ franchise themselves, perfect replicas of some of the more iconic vehicles done up in familiar patterns. While a little disappointed that bikes were not included, Hiro still felt like he had just walked into heaven. However, heaven was already populated with more people than he anticipated.

As the door shut behind them, the clicking of the lock was amazingly loud, catching everyone's attention inside. They turned from whatever they were doing to aim their eyes at the two arriving boys and the two halted in their tracks. Hiro made an educated guess of thirty-four people all standing around the machines, mixed in with their own little groups scattered around the area. Many of them seemed almost the same age as he and Akira, while some looked a little older and a handful that were clearly little kids.

"Perfect timing," a boy with long, white bushy hair said, his eyes partially visible in between his long bangs. And, quite muscular given his well-toned arms that Hiro figured him to be athletic.

"Hmm?" Hiro said, unsure what he meant.

"We were in a middle of a tournament and we're short a couple of people," another boy said, having brown, spiky hair. A little shorter than the other, but clearly an athlete as well.

Scanning a little closely at the group, Hiro found that several of them seemed like they were athletic with their stature. There were some that looked more normal, but there wasn't a bad-looking person among the group. Having had to deal with meatheads while in high school, Hiro had not the patience to deal with people who valued sports over an education. Then again, the more academic ones weren't as welcoming. However, seeing the many smiles that was shared among the group, he sensed something different about them, something that was missing.

"Hiro Hamada?" a feminine voice called out from the group.

Taken by surprise, Hiro looked around, wondering who just called out to him. Then, coming from the side, a red-headed girl popped out from the crowd, a look of disbelief written on her face that quickly morphed into gladness. "Oh, my God," she gasped as she covered her mouth in pleasant shock.

A sense of déjà vu overwhelmed Hiro as he studied the girl's round, yet pretty face. There was something familiar about it. Running through his database of faces, he quickly found a match, at least the closest one, of that of his childhood friend that he hadn't seen or heard in over five years.

 _It can't be_ he thought. "Penny?"

As her lips contorted into a huge smile, the girl he recognized as Penny from his elementary school days dashed and jumped into him, wrapping her arms around his torso in a tight hug. "Hiro, it's been forever!"

Hiro felt his breath left his body while getting constricted, but he couldn't help but to show a smile of gratitude. "Penny," he said in a gasp and returned the hug as joy filled his whole being.

Pulling back from him, Penny studied him and immediately noticed something that she didn't seem to approve off. "Since when you've become taller than me?" she said, measuring his height with her hand over the top of his head while she stood just below his eyeline.

"I guess I do share more genes with Tadashi than you think," Hiro said smirking, remembering all the times he suffered from the girl's constant teasing of his lack of height.

"Yeah, well, you've still got a long way to go," she said as her teasing smile returned.

"So, this is the 'Kid Genius'?" the white-haired boy asked.

"Yeah," Penny said as she turned back to the group. "We were friends in elementary school."

Then, to his surprise, everybody moved forward and quickly surrounded him, many with interested expression while they started commenting on the news story from a year earlier about how a thirteen-year-old boy graduated from high school because of his high IQ. Then, the introductions began as they shouted out their names and Hiro tried to be polite by shaking as many of the hands he could get as possible while they pushed them near his face. Looking around, all Hiro could find were looks of genuine curiosity of him and it made him feel a little important.

Amidst in all of the chaos, he managed to locate Penny standing next to him. "Penny, do you know everybody here?" he asked.

"Yeah. We all go to the same school," Penny said.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised at you making a lot of friends," Hiro said. She was always a very cheerful and friendly person.

"Well, speaking of friends, you came in with one, right?"

"Oh, you mean Aki-" turning around, Hiro found that the boy in question had suddenly disappear, nowhere to be seen. "Huh?"

"I think he's trying to leave," a soft voice called out.

Turning his sight to the door along with everyone else, Hiro caught the boy standing in front of it. "Akira?" he called out to him and his body lurched in response like he was caught red-handed. "What are you doing?"

Akira turned back at the group, wearing a big smile on his face that came off as very forced to Hiro. Sweat seemed evident on the side of his face even though the room was well ventilated. "Um…it's a little crowed in here and…well, I…I don't want to bother anybody from their fun and since you seemed to already know somebody, I'll just…leave. Have fun, Hiro," he said and turn back towards the door, in which the sound of it opening echoed loudly in the room.

Hiro was about to say something to stop him, but Penny immediately ran up to Akira. "Hi," she said cheerfully as he pushed her hand to him. "You must be Hiro's friend."

Turning to the red-headed girl, Akira held a look of shock like something was impossible. "Uh, well, not really…honestly," he said, obviously nervous. "We've just met earlier today. So, I can't be his friend." Scratching his head, Hiro caught a sad look on his face, as if he might harbor some form of regret.

Penny looked confused as her hand slowly limped, but she regained her composure. "Well, it would be a shame to just let you leave when you've just came in. My name is Penny."

"Um…Akira," the boy said. In an awkward manner, he reached for the hand slowly like he was afraid that he might scare her away.

But, she wore a patient look and reached out to him and the two firmly shook. "Nice to meet you, Akira," she said cheerfully.

Finally, Akira showed a semblance of a smile, a side of the lips pushing slightly upward. "Same here," he said. After they released their handshake, they both turned to everybody, Akira looking a little more relaxed, but Hiro could sense that the boy was still anxious as he fiddled with his fingers, but forced himself to make eye contact with everybody.

"Everyone, this is Akira," Penny announced.

A chorus of greetings called out, many of them enthusiastic, which Akira politely waved to them in appreciative acknowledgement.

Then, the white-haired boy walked up front, holding his hand outward towards Akira. "Name's Riku," he greeted and Akira took his hand in another handshake. "I take it that you are not from around here," he inquired.

"Actually, I just moved here from Kentucky last week," Akira said.

The reveal generated a reaction from the crowd and many separated themselves from Hiro and went over to Akira. They started asking him all kinds of questions about his old home, his school, and his hobbies. Akira, flustered by the attention, switched his attention back and forth all around him with each new question thrown at him. He didn't seemed bothered by it, but, looking slightly downward towards the floor, he was reluctant to answer any of their questions, which Hiro quickly understood why. _He doesn't want anybody to know what a sad life he had_ Hiro thought.

"Hey, everybody, settle down!" Riku called out and the room went silent in an instant. "I think we're making him uncomfortable by huddling around him like this. How about you make a hole and let him through? We've got a tournament to finish, anyway." With his hand on Akira's shoulder, he led Akira outside of the circle of curious observers. The bi-speckled boy looked at the taller, muscular teen with a form of awe. "You like _Mario Kart_?" Riku asked him.

"I love _Mario Kart_ ," Akira answered.

"Then, you're going to fit right in just fine," Riku said with a genuine smile that was looked exclusive for the boy. Akira turned down at his walking feet, but a smile and a bit of a flush appeared on his face. "So, since the both of you came in late for the party, we could let you guys have a practice run before the real thing."

"Yeah, okay," Hiro said.

"Sounds good," Akira said, his voice low, but sounded grateful for the option.

 _Don't tell me that he's already falling for the guy,_ Hiro thought. Course, he couldn't really blame him. Admittedly, Riku's quite handsome, but Hiro couldn't shake some odd feeling about it.

After Riku led the two to their karts, they both each hopped into adjacent one and faced the large, LDC screen that enveloped their entire vision. The controls were simple enough as they were explained by their host, the steering wheel and the two petals like an actual vehicle. "You guys can drift with those petals," Riku continued with his explanation, "and it'll depend on how much pressure to put to them to make a successful drift. To make a boost from a drift, just release your foot off from the brake. As usual, there are item boxes. You use your horn to launch your item, once to throw it ahead of you, twice to have it tailed behind you and you just hit it again to release it. Think you can handle it?"

"It's simple enough, which is what this game is all about," Hiro said, keeping his excitement contained as he strapped himself into the kart.

Akira nodded, looked just as eager to start, his smile become bigger while he watched the screen. Quickly, the other four vacant karts were filled with the four kids, a young boy with short, green hair and a cocky grin sitting from Akira's right while three young girls took the other three across from them. "Okay, we'll take things a little easy by going to Baby Park. Not to insult you guy's driving skills or anything," Riku said, sounding like he couldn't care less if he offended them, but he gave Akira a good-humored smile and a pat on the back and Akira chuckled.

Hiro felt a little jab into his heart and it surprised him. _Wait a minute. What the hell was that?_ Hiro thought, his confusion getting mixed with… _No way._ Shaking away his thoughts, he poured his focus onto the screen. While it may be a test drive, Hiro was not going look like a fool in front of everybody.

The game gave a short introductory swirl around the shortest track in the franchise's history, an elongated loop set up in a the middle of a brightly colored theme park made exclusively for toddlers. With the six racers in their place, the Lakitu came down with the horizontal starting light and began its countdown.

"3…2…1…GO!"

The racers were off, traveling down fast while they quickly made their way to the first turn. Following Riku's instructions, Hiro quickly applied the brake and turned the wheel. He found himself drift with the back wheels lighting up, but Hiro found himself making too wide of the turn as he just skimmed alongside the perimeter of the track. Hiro had only applied little force on the brake. Watching the other racers sped by him with tighter turns, he could see that Akira was having the same problem as him and they were left in the last two places. But, there were only ten laps left, more than enough to get acquainted with the physics engine.

As the race progressed with each lap, Hiro took the time to experiment the pressure of the brakes and gas with the turns. With high acceleration, he need to applied more of the brake to make a sharp enough turn, but that would mean sacrificing his control of the vehicle. The kids seemed to figure it out, but with the items, Hiro could turn the tables. Managing to locate the sweet spot about halfway through the race, Hiro was making tighter turns with each new lap and, with the help of some items like red shells, he was able to get ahead. But, he wasn't the only one.

It seemed that Akira managed to figure out how the game worked and was making some tight turns around the loop. He was just straddling behind Hiro in 2nd Place, but Hiro was not going to let him past. With a banana peel, he had it drag behind and quickly released it in front of Akira. However, the boy managed to swerve out of the way and continued without dropping his speed. The crowd watching expressed the boy's action with respect, which Hiro had to admit. Taking a quick peak, he caught Akira focusing intently on his screen, ignoring everything around him. Looks like he didn't want to lose this race as well. That actually made Hiro happy to see. _A worthy challenger_ Hiro thought.

With just three laps to go, Akira managed to skip by Hiro and sneak his way up to 1st Place. Then, the dreaded siren. Hiro knew that a Blue Shell was coming and was glad that Akira took the spot just then. However, Akira's kart fell back and Hiro found himself back in 1st just as the Blue Shell appear above his avatar and slammed down in a blue explosion. It also caught two other racers in its blast radius while Akira sped off, reclaiming his 1st Place.

Hiro smacked his wheel in frustration, but his smile immediately returned as the crowd laughed at the sight. Akira know that trick very well and he did it effectively. He had to give him that. But, the race was not yet over.

With the 10th and final lap, Hiro made it to 2nd Place with Akira still hogging 1st. Hiro knew that he had one shot left. Grabbing an item box, Hiro hoped for something that will turned the table and pull an upset. He got a Bob-omb. Not his first choice, but it'll do just fine if he could time it just right.

Reaching the second turn before the finish line, Hiro slammed his fist onto the horn and watch as the cute, little walking bomb flew ahead. It bounced from the side of the racetrack and it land just ahead of Akira's path.

"AYEEEEEE-EEEEEEE!" was all that he heard, but watched in disappointment as the boy swerved, at the very last second, out of its blast radius and continued on unimpeded into 1st Place, with Hiro having to settled for 2nd. However, that didn't matter to him because he was laughing along with everybody else. Just the sound that Akira had made, as if he had just faced a life-or-death situation, just made the whole thing worth the loss to him.

Sitting his kart with his head pressed against the steering wheel, Akira's body was convulsing with laughter, the loudest out of everybody. Even watching the usually silent and nervous boy just losing it was making Hiro laugh even harder that his eyes continued to well up with tears.

"You jerk," Akira said in between his laughter as he started to calm down. "I think I need to change my pants."

"Well, that's for kicking me and spraying me with your drink," Hiro said, still laughing. Finally, he calmed down and fell back into his seat, his stomach aching. When was the last time that Hiro ever laugh like that, and along with another person? It was with Tadashi and Penny and Aunt Cass, a long time ago.

It felt really good to laugh like that.

"Wow, you guys were, like, super-duper incredible!" a girl with pink, fluffy hair popped in between the two of them, making them jump from their seats in surprise by her unexpected appearance. "Akira was all like 'VRRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRR!' and Hiro's like 'OH, NO YOU DON'T!' and throws that Bob-omb right in front of Akira and you were like 'AYEEEEEE-EEEEEEE!' and it went 'BOOOOM!' and Akira swerved out of its way like 'SCCCRRRRRRRR!' before you get blown up into smithereens and won First Place! Seriously, that was AWESOME!"

"Um…thanks," Akira said, his voice low while replaced his glasses back onto his face.

"With skills like that, I bet you were super popular where you came from," the girl blurted out with a big smile on her face. It looked to Hiro that Pinkie thought Akira was some celebrity.

However, Akira only scratched his head, looking quite flustered by the notion. "Uh, no, I wasn't like that," Akira said. "We don't even have an arcade where I came from."

"Really?" she said.

"So, this is your first time playing a game like this?" Penny asked, looking surprised by the notion.

"Yes," Akira said. "In fact, I didn't think a game like this could exist."

"And, you seemed to able to get the hang of it pretty quickly," someone said, which many in the group start acknowledging it.

 _Yeah, that's right_ Hiro thought. Hiro had played racing games a lot that he understood how the mechanics works. But, Akira, who never played a game like this before, was able to understand it almost as fast as Hiro did. "Interesting," Hiro whispered. At the very least, he's a quick learner. _Maybe it might work._

Getting out of their karts, Riku proposed a little break while he get the final race all set up. Hiro watched Akira as he got pulled away by the pink-haired girl by the arm to meet with other people. He looked very bashful with each new meeting, but his smile told Hiro that he was enjoying himself as he met with everybody. Hiro couldn't help but feel a little happy for him.

"You really just met him today?"

Hiro turned to the person speaking and found Penny standing next to him. "Yeah," he answered. "Tadashi wanted me to meet him, thinking that I could use a friend."

"Really?" Penny said, looking surprised by the information. "That's…surprising. I thought that you would have a lot of friends yourself. I mean, you were a pretty crazy kid back in elementary school."

"Yeah, well, not many in high school thought it would be cool to befriend a kid who is way smarter than themselves."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Penny said, a look of guilt on her face.

"It's fine, Penny," Hiro said, happy to actually talk to the girl once again. "I...really missed you."

Penny smiled at him. "I missed you, too," she said and hugged him from the side, resting her head on his shoulder. It felt calming to be in her presence.

"So, have you raced already?"

"Nope. I'm going up against you. And, we do have some competition with Rachel, Sora, and Chloe. And, the new guy, of course."

"Oh, yeah?" Hiro said.

"You know, I can't help but to feel this sadness coming from him."

"Who, Akira?"

Penny nodded, watching as Akira continued to be dragged around the room, meeting more of the people, his big smile plastered on his face. "I know you two only met today, but do you know something about him?"

"Well, not much," Hiro said.

"You're a bad liar, Hiro," Penny said, a smirk appearing on her lips.

Hiro shrugged his shoulders, feeling like giving up. "He now lives with his sister, who is a friend of Tadashi. That's how Akira met him. Apparently, he had to move away due to some trouble he got himself into at school."

"Really? I can't see him being a troublemaker."

"It's not that kind of trouble," Hiro said. _He tried to kill himself_ Hiro wanted to say, but he remembered Tadashi's words of not to bring it up until Akira was ready to talk about it with him. He might as well honor it.

"What about his parents?"

"I don't know about that. I guess they couldn't come with him."

"That's terrible."

"Well, that's all that I know. Tadashi knows the details and he doesn't want to share it with me."

"Well, whatever happened to him, he seems very happy right now."

"Just try not to make him mad, though. He has a bit of a temper."

Penny giggled. "Does it have something to do about him kicking you and then spraying his drink onto you? What the heck's that all about?"

"Well, Tadashi and I were having lunch with Akira and his sister…" Hiro began and recounted the entire story to the girl and the two share plenty of laughs throughout his entire story. For Hiro, it was almost like the two had never separated from each other.


	10. Chapter X

**Chapter X: Let the Races Begin!**

Akira's arm felt like it was ready to fall out of its socket with how Pinkie had been yanking on it to drag him all around the room for a second round of introduction in getting him to know everybody on a first name basis and to learn a little bit about themselves. All were open with him, making Akira feel like he was becoming a part of a group. And, to his surprise, some of them had reveal that they themselves had also moved to the city, thereby making them empathic towards him. Riley admitted that she cried in class on her first day while she introduced herself because she thought about her hometown and how much she missed it. Violet also told him of how her family had to move just about every year because of her father's work, but after a while decided to stop and settled in the city for good a couple of years ago. Kairi said that she moved to the city when she was much younger because her hometown was destroyed by a fire and her family came to the city. Teresa, one of Pinkie's best friends and whom she called "Twlight", talked about how she objected to the move when her father took a teaching job at one of the universities in the city. It was with time that they all began to warm to their new home and they love it because of the friends they'd amass and assured him that not only would he make plenty of friend, but had already have. Hearing all of it made Akira feel included, as if he joined a special club.

However, when asked about what his old home was like, Akira couldn't get himself to answer their questions regarding it. The problem was that he felt empty about the home he had left behind, that he couldn't even feel angry at it. It was as if it only existed in his dreams, in that it no longer held much importance to him anymore. He found it to be disturbing.

"Hey, are you okay?" Pinkie asked him.

Having met with everybody, he and his introducer stood off at a corner of the room for a little brake. She seemed worried for him. "I'm fine," he said and smiled to reinforce it.

She seemed to buy it as she smiled back at him. "Okay," she said. "Now then."

"What?" Akira asked, unsure of what was happening.

"Out of everybody in this room, who do you like the most?"

Like a punch to the gut, Akira stumbled back as his eyes went wide from behind his glasses. "W-What?" he said, flabbergasted by the question.

"Out of everybody in this room, who do you like the most?" she repeated herself, her smile pushing out her cheeks, letting her pearly white teeth shine.

Thinking that it must be a joke, Akira started chuckling, albeit nervously, but as she continued to smile at him without reacting accordingly, he realized that she was serious with her inquiry. "Uh, don't you think it's a bit early for me to make that kind of assertion?" he asked.

"Oh, come on. Please? Pretty please?" she pleaded with him. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with your dear, old Aunt Pinkie. I'll stuff it in a box and bury it so no one can find it. That's a Pinkie Promise!" and held out her right pinkie finger in front of him.

But, Akira was still hesitant in taking the bait. "But, why do you want to know who I like the most?"

"So I can set you up on a date, duh!"

His face turning pale, Akira's mouth dropped. "What?" he said, stepping back like he was trying to escape from a predator, but found himself literally up against a wall. "Set me up? On a date?"

"Yeah!" she smiled so innocently. Akira tried to say something, but she shushed him with her finger on his lips. "Oh, don't sell yourself short. I know that a cute, smart, and totally awesome gamer such as yourself can catch any eye in this city! Within legal boundaries, but, hey, who says that love isn't blind!"

"But-"

"So, tell me! Who do you like the most? And, don't worry, I won't be hurt if you don't say it's me, okay?"

Feeling that there was no way of avoiding this lunatic girl and her curiosity, Akira's eye start to wonder around the room, looming over each and every person. The truth was that, after meeting everybody, the real challenge was choosing who he like the least. Yet, the feeling's so basic that he thought it would be unfair both to himself and to the person in question. How could he make such a decision? But, he wanted Pinkie to just leave him alone that he was willing to go along with it if it meant making her stop with the foolishness.

Looking around more, his eyes finally settled on someone on the other side of the room. Hiro. And, he was conversing with Penny, his aforementioned childhood friend. And, they seemed to be enjoying each other's company as they laughed together over something shared between them. Looking at Hiro more closely, he looked so relaxed and his smiling face reminded him so much of Tadashi's, and the thought made his heart skip a beat.

"Hmm?" Pinkie turned her head to look behind her. "Oh, is it Penny that you like?"

"Huh?" Akira snapped himself out of his daydream, looking at pink-haired girl.

"I guess that would make sense, if not a little predictable, since she is the first one to introduced herself to you and you must have felt very comfortable with her because of that. But, I do know that she isn't interested in anybody at this point and she is super awesome and fun to be around! I say you've made a very good pick!" She gave him two thumbs way up. "Come on, let's go talk to her!"

"N-N-N-No!" Akira cried out, feeling like he's on a runaway train with the brakes inoperable. Agitated, his brain scramble for what he needed to say to stop whatever it was from happening. "I mean, I do like Penny. She's very nice, but-"

"But?" Pinkie said, confused as she looked back again. "Oh, so it's Hiro that you like?" Akira slapped himself in the forehead with both of his palms. "How did I not see that? How silly of me! It would make even more sense since the two of you did come in together, which gives the impression that the two of you know each more. And, technically, he is in the room, so-"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP!?"

His words echoed around the room, in which it went silent as everybody stopped with their conversations to turn their attention to its source while Akira covered his mouth, air-tight, with his hands, his eyes wide open in shock. He could feel every pair of eyes all converged onto him, trapping him on the spot. His body went stiff, unable to get his legs moving as if everybody's eyes we're holding him down with their glares. He looked around and he found Hiro and Penny, both also looking at him, both wearing expressions that he could interpret. Did they find him odd? Maybe a little crazy? It was becoming excruciating for him to see that he had to go through with it all over again.

"Pinkie, what's going on?" Riku appeared, walking forwards them with a stern look on his face.

Pinkie, looking quite nervous, turned her head back at Riku as if she knew that she was in big trouble. "I…I didn't mean it!" she said, looking very upset while tears well up in her eyes. Then, she quickly turned to Akira and bowed low, her head hovering above the floor. "I'm very, very, _very_ sorry for making you nervous like that! You're right, sometimes I really don't know when to shut up!"

"More like always," Riku commented and sounding quite harsh with it.

Akira, feeling responsible, bowed down to her. "No, I'm the one that should be apologizing! I shouldn't have yelled at you like that! You were only trying to help!"

"No, no. I'm the one who should be sorry! I was just forcing you answer one of my stupid questions!" Looking up, she grabbed onto his hands, her eyes pleading for him. "But, please, don't think that I'm only doing this for my own enjoyment! I really do want to help you out! It's just that you look so sad and…I mean, I didn't mean to suggest that-"

"No, it's fine, Pinkie, really," Akira said, sounding reassuring as he squeezed her hands. "I…I really appreciate what you were trying to do. But, I don't think right now is the best time for me, you know."

"Yeah, that's fine," she said, finally smiling. "But, don't hesitate to ask me for any advice when it comes to the dating scene, okay? I'm available 24/7."

"Okay. Thank you, Pinkie," smiling back at her.

With an accepting nod, she let go and backed away. As she left, Akira let out a sigh, glad that things had deescalated so quickly. She's a little crazy, but Akira's still liked her nonetheless.

"Okay, show's over!' Rikue called out and everybody turned their heads away from the scene, resuming with their conversations as if what happened never occurred. "You okay, Akira?" he said.

"I'm…I'm good," he answered, still feeling awkward. "I'm sorry about-"

"Hey, it's done," he said, smiling assuredly. "Mind if you come with me? I'm still setting up the race. I could use the company."

"Uh, sure," Akira said.

As if to show him that the invitation was genuine, Riku placed his arm around his shoulders and the two started walking together. Akira, still embarrassed by what just happened, kept his eyes on the ground, not wanting to make any eye contact with anybody. _Now, they must all think I'm some kind of weirdo_ he thought.

Reaching the other side of the room, Akira found that they were quite separated from everybody as Riku walked around the black console board. It looked like something from a cheap sci-fi TV show as the white-haired boy started working on it. Curious, Akira walked over the side and watched in silence.

Six separate screens lay in the middle, each one showing both racetrack and the karts themselves. All lit up green, it was relaying information on the functionality of the machines, showing that everything's in good order with no problems detected, such as the steering wheels and the petals. A separate screen on top showed an options menu, with a list reading off as different attributes such as number of laps, items, AI difficulty and several more judging by the shortness of the scrolling bar. Amazed by its ornateness, Akira thought it a little much for a game as innocent as _Mario Kart_.

"Despite its looks, it's made to be more accessible for the public to play," Riku said. "Even dear old Grandma can join in on the fun. Course, I know a few that can be pretty hardcore."

"It's a bit much to take in," Akira said, but still find it fascinating.

"Man, can you imagine how crazy people will get once they see this? You'll have to beat them off with a stick just to get the chance to play it."

"I know one who's going to flip out once they see this," Akira said, imagining GoGo going gaga with one look at it with her eternal love of the franchise.

Riku smirked and returned to his work. "So, you really don't have anything like this in Bowling Green?"

"Nope," Akira answered. Then, he heard the question again in his head and realized that something wasn't right about it. "Wait, how do you know I'm from there? I never mentioned that." Riku looked back at Akira, remaining silent. "Or, did I?"

"I know who you are," he whispered, only loud enough for Akira to hear.

"What?"

"You were on the news a month ago. You moved here to live with your sister because of troubles you had in your old school. And, that you nearly took your own life."

Feeling his like his body was frozen stiff, being gripped with fear, Akira could only look at Riku as the white-haired boy looked back at him with an indifference. _He knows?_ he thought. "W-Where did-"

"A news channel I follow on YouTube," Riku said. "They were covering your story. They even had a picture of you so I knew who you were the moment you walked in. I honestly never expect to run into you."

His throat felt like it was tightening up that he was unable to form any words while he stared at Riku, still amazed that he would even know about it.

As if sensing his uneasiness, Riku reached over and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, I don't think any less of you because of it. I just can only imagine how shitty if must have been for you in that situation."

"Yeah, it was…really not fun," Akira said, chuckling at himself for such a mundane description of the worst time of his life. "Does everybody here know me?"

"Maybe a few. It's a huge channel, so it managed to garner tons of views."

"I knew that the local news covered it. I never thought that it'll be that big."

"Does that Hiro kid know?"

"Hiro?" Looking back at the boy genius while he continued conversing with Penny, Akira knew that Tadashi had told him some things based on what Hiro said earlier. "Not the whole story," Akira said.

The white-haired boy lifted his eyebrow, as if unsure by what Akira meant. "Would you like for him to know about it?"

"I don't think he even cares," he said, looking back at Hiro as he continued to smile at Penny and he felt a jab in his heart.

"Would you like to consider him as a friend?"

"Friend? I…" he let out a sigh. "I really don't know. I mean…we've just only met this morning all because his brother, Tadashi, set the whole meeting up without my knowing. In fact, I actually consider Tadashi to be more of a friend than Hiro, only because I know him longer. And, way nicer than Hiro."

"Does he come off as a jerk?"

"Yeah, he does," Akira said with no hesitation, which Riku chuckled at his honestly. "But, I think there's more to him. I mean, he's the one who invited me to come along to the arcade. And…I think we managed to have a bit of an understanding with one another from earlier. Plus, I don't know why, but…I can't help but to think that he feels just as lonely as I do."

"He doesn't look all that lonely from where I'm standing."

"I mean, before that," Akira said as he pointed his thumb at the aforementioned pair. "Even with his brother, who I figured he's really close with, he still keeps himself distant."

"Sounds like to me he has a bit of a superiority complex."

"I thought so, too. But, I don't know. I just know that I don't dislike being with him, at the moment."

Riku nodded as if it was a satisfying answer. "Sounds reasonable," he said. "Alright, we are good to go." Stepping away from the console, Riku started walking through the middle of the room. "The final race is about to begin! The last six racers, make your way to your karts!" Turning around to look at Akira, he patted his shoulder. "Good luck, Akira."

"Thanks," Akira said, appreciating the gesture.

Heading for his ride, the other karts were quickly being claimed. "Alright, time for me to kick some butt!" a girl with long, rainbow colored hair named Rachel shouted, looking eager to get the race started.

Next to her, Sora hopped into his seat from the back, looking just as excited with Chole taking the kart next to him. A small cadre of girls surrounding the boy started cheering for him, and he waved to them to acknowledge their support in his win. He wasn't the only one as just a many started cheering for Rachel, clearly both of them were the favorites, though Chloe had a few supporters herself.

Hiro took the middle kart, stepping in while Penny grabbed the one on his left. With the one on his right vacant, Akira took it and got himself familiar with the controls again as he strapped himself in.

"Hiro! Akira!" a voice pulled his attention towards where Penny sat where she waved to the two boys. "May the best racer wins!"

They both waved back at her, Akira looking forward to the challenge. Then, to his surprise, Hiro looked at Akira and held out his hand towards him. Akira reached out to grabbed it and shook. "You may have been lucky before, but I'm intending on going into the finals!" Hiro said, a cocky smile on his lips.

Akira could help but to chuckle at his bravado. "We'll see," he said and the two released their handshake and turned their attention to the giant screen in front of them as the game introduced their first track, "Mario Kart Stadium."

It appeared rudimentary with a few turns on an otherwise short-looking track, with the exception of the part where it went inverted, curving onto its side as it raised above from the ground. With the racers set up behind the checkered line, the Lakitu dropped down with it lights and begin with its countdown.

"3…2…1…GO!"

Stepping on the gas in the middle of the countdown, his kart blasted off at the start, hurling him forward along with everybody else down the heavily lit path. The turns were easy enough to navigate with plenty of speed boosters to propel him farther. However, the racers were packed together, making it hard for Akira to get much further in the line, straddling him in between 3rd and 4th Place, and he was unable to get any of the item boxes with the other racers ahead nabbing him first before he could the chance. The only things that he could get were coins and there were plenty of them scattered all over the track, but they held no apparent use as far as he was concerned.

Driving along, he quickly reached the part where the track turned on its side up in the air and his speed was unimpeded with the change of scenery. It was some sort of anti-gravity mechanic added to the game, seemingly used for mostly aesthetics, but he quickly found it to be a neat idea. As the racers started to separate each other, giving him some room to breathe, Akira speed onward, following the paved track as it curved up into the night sky while it exploded with fireworks, a brief moment but it was exhilarating for him. Coming back down, he managed to get an item box and as he came off from the track, he was surprised to see some sort of paraglider activating from the top of his kart. He sailed through the air just above the track and wasn't sure what he needed to do as he watched himself landing back onto the ground and just continued on.

He scored a Green Shell, which was good enough for him as he sat in 4th Place. The next racer just in front of him, Akira waiting for the opportune moment. The racer, whoever it was, crossed his sights and he slammed his palm in the middle of the steering wheel. He watched the shell as it launched from him and glided straight ahead, aiming for its target. It made a direct hit, stopping the racer literally in its track, and Akira sped by into 3rd Place at the start of the second lap.

"Crap!" he heard somebody yelled, but he couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to, or if it was connected to what he did.

It didn't matter anymore as he pressed on, his competitive side taking over with the next racer in his sights. Going at top speed, he activated the drifting mechanic, just slightly pushing down on the brake to give his kart a bit more torque in his turn around the curve and, then, blasting off into a straight line to shorten the distance. It was so satisfying for him to pull it off like that. He got a red shell, a much more reliable item, and was ready to use it until he heard siren blasting off. He immediately recognized what it signifying.

"Oh-oh," Akira said, glad to not be in 1st Place with the dreaded Spiny Shell, or Blue Shell as it was commonly known, flew by him like a missile. Akira could see where the 1st Place racer was at up ahead and could see them starting to slow down, a common trick in the game to bait the racer behind him to take his spot before the shell reached him. However, Akira could see the 2nd Place racer also slowing down as well. With the two racers next to each other, the Blue Shell appeared above them and slammed down, enveloping them into a huge, blue blast.

"Damn it, that idiot!" Hiro yelled at the screen, which Akira assumed to be one of the unfortunate racers caught in the blast.

The opportunity presenting itself, Akira slammed his foot on the gas and he sped forward as fast as he can, passing the still two crashed karts and taking 1st Place for himself. He became excited by the tables getting turned in his favor, until he heard another siren. Surprised by how sudden it came, he was ready to activate his red shell to stop whatever it was from getting to him, but he she got struck by a red shell himself, sending him tumbling off the road and into the grass and losing a few coins in the process. Staggering back onto the track, he watched helplessly as his place dropped with each passing racer.

Getting back into the race, he noticed that he wasn't going as fast as he was before. It was subtle, but there was a notable chance in his speed. Going along the race, he picked up a few more coins and found himself going a little bit faster and he realized their purpose. He figured that they could give him the edge. Now undeterred by his setback, Akira pressed on with the race, managing to get back into 3rd by the start of the 3rd and final Lap of the race.

He followed the track with familiar ease, grabbing some kid of horn as his item. Again, unsure of its use, he held on to it, getting closer to the racers ahead. With a slam on his steering wheel, the horn let out some sort of soundwave and caused the racer to spin out of control. Excited by the item's usefulness as he moved into 2nd Place, Akira set his sight for 1st. He was running out of time, but he's getting a little closer. Almost there…

A siren sounded off and, before he could do anything, he got sideswiped again by a red shell, knocking him out long enough to be sent back to 3rd once again. Frustrated, he moved on, hoping to regain his lost spot before the end, but was unable to get any closer. He crossed the finish line, finishing at 3rd. It'll do, he figured, as it was the first race out of four, meaning that there would be more chances for him to catch up.

With the final racer crossing the finish him, the result screen appeared as follow. Rachel's in 1st, followed by Sora in 2nd. Their victories made the crowd cheer enthusiastically in their favor and they both look pleased with the result. With Akira in 3rd, he got a few compliments on his performance. Hiro, coming in 4th, was understandably displeased with the results, followed by Chloe in 5th, then Penny in dead last. Looking at the red-headed girl, she didn't seem all that upset about it. In fact, she looked very happy as he stared at Hiro while the boy genius slumped in his seat with a sour looked, his cheeks puffed and his arms crossed. Akira couldn't help but to chuckle at the pouting Hiro. _I guess even Einstein would have his moments_ Akira thought.

The next racetrack appeared, its name "Bone Dry Desert." And, as the name imply, it's set in the desert. There appeared to be plenty of twists and turns and even a couple of forks, possible shortcuts Akira figured.

"3…2…1…GO!"

Blasting off, Akira got himself into 2nd Place and grabbed an item box for a change, giving him a green shell. Continuing down the meandering track, the racer ahead of him crossed his path and he tossed it. It made a direct hit, getting it to spin out of control to allow him to grab 1st Place for himself.

"Crap!" he heard somebody screamed, immediately recognizing it as belonging to Rachel. "You're going down, new guy!" she called out to him, but he detected a sense of good humor in the tone. She's competitive, but she wasn't going to let it get in the way of a good time. In fact, he suspected that she enjoy a good challenge.

The turns were more unforgiving, having him to turn the wheel left to right and vice versa on a whim while activating his drifting, careful not to veer right off the course, as he would lose precious speed, or to run completely off the track, losing precious time. It was a balancing act that constantly change with each new take of the track laid ahead of him. He also kept in mind in collecting coins to bump up his top speed.

Passing the Bony Piranha Plant, he took the right at the fork and it carried him into the anti-gravity part, putting him on his side while he rolled past several speed boosters. At the end, he flew over a gap, his paraglider popping out from the top to carry him to the other side. Landing back onto the road, the dreaded sound of an approaching Blue Shell along with the flashing red screen surprised him. However, him being so far ahead of the pack and it still early in the race, he pressed on and take the hit, as much as he hated it as he had no options. It appeared over him and slammed down, taking him out for a few seconds. He lost most of his coins, so his speed took a big hit and he could see the racers on the map quickly catching up to him. He remained in 1st as he crossed the line, entering Lap 2, but he knew that he was a long way off from finishing the race. Plenty of things could still go wrong for him.

Another siren and his screen blaring red warned him of another approaching Blue Shell heading for him. Amazed at his bad luck, the only thing he had for his protection was a Banana Peel, which would not do him any good. However, the next racer was getting closer, so Akira decided to hand 1st Place to him along with the approaching Blue Shell. But, the racer seemed wised to his tactic as they slowed down quickly enough for the Blue Shell to bypass them harmlessly and still aim for Akira, exploding his kart again. He let out a groin of annoyance at his misfortune and watched the racer he tried to trick swerve pass him, taking away his lead. The other racers also caught up and sent him all the way to the back of the line into 6th Place. But, he was not giving up.

Swerving around the turns, he picked his speed back up with the coins, able to quickly pass the next two racers as they had some trouble navigating the course, getting into 4th Place. The next one was just ahead of him and, in a change of luck, Akira got a Red Shell. He immediately used it against them and got 3rd Place.

He took the right path again and blasted off with the speed boosters to cover the distance of the next racer coming up in his sights. He picked up a Banana Peel and immediately had it dragging from behind his kart for some protection. He employed his drift one again, hoping for an extra boost of speed to help close the distance, but the racers were proficient with the drifting as well, making it harder for him to get closer as he went into the 3rd Lap.

For the rest of the race, Akira was only able to get closer, but not by much as he concentrated on staying on track and not falling behind. Coming in 3rd again would put him more in a disadvantage when it came to winning the whole thing, but losing his place will hurt his chances even further, so he decided not to risk it.

He was beginning to settle for 3rd until the last part of the track when he saw the racer up ahead make a hard-left turn that took them right off the course. Sensing an opportunity, Akira, careful with his steering, activated his drift and quickly released his brake to boost across the finish line, seeing himself covering so much ground that he managed to catch up with the racer ahead of him, but he only finished in 2nd Place.

In the end, Hiro came in 1st, with Akira in 2nd then Chloe in 3rd, Rachel in 4th, Penny in 5th, and Sora coming abysmally in 6th. He could see Riku berating the spiky-hair boy for his poor performance, which Sora looked absolutely sheepish. Rachel also wasn't happy about her performance as well. Hiro, on the other hand, looked at his result with pride as his car made its victory lap.

"Nice job, Hiro," Akira said to him.

Hiro turned to him, smirking at him. "Not bad yourself," Hiro said.

The score tallied came to Hiro tying with Rachel for 1st with 24 points, then Akira at 2nd with 22, then Sora in 3rd with 19, Chloe at 4th with 18, and Penny in last with 15. It was still anybody's race, but there were clearly favorites, with Rachel and Sora receiving plenty of cheering despite what happened. However, it seemed that Hiro managed to gain a few admirers for himself as he heard a couple of people remarking on how Hiro could win and go into the finals.

"Come on, Akira! You can do it!" Recognizing that shrilling voice, Akira turned his head to find the pink-haired girl jumping, her hands hidden in pom-poms like a cheerleader at a football game. "Come on, everybody, say it with me! A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA! WOOOOOO!"

"Pinkie, you traitor!" he heard Rachel screaming.

"Sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I think Akira has what it takes to win!" Pinkie said.

"Rainbow Dash?" Akira asked her.

"Oh, just a little nickname I gave her. Cute, huh?" she said, reminding him of another silly person who like to give out silly nicknames. "FIRECRACKER, SALAMANDER, SIS-BOOM-BA! A-KI-RA, A-KI-RA, RA-RA-RA!"

While sweatdrops appeared on his head as he looked back at the screen, a little embarrassed by her out of control antics, nonetheless felt invigorated by her motivation. It was nice to have somebody actually cheering for him. With the next race being introduced, he steeled himself for the upcoming battle.

"Shy Guy Falls" was its name and it's the most insensible track thus far in the game, looking like it came from _Inception._ It looked as though it incorporated waterfalls into the track itself, which was actually pretty cool Akira thought.

"3…2…1…GO!"

Blasting off once again, he was met with some tight turns with no guardrails that would keep him from falling off, so he had to be careful with his speed as well as with his drifting, which he came to enjoy doing so much of. Driving on, he was careful not to oversteer and kept his drift going much longer than he thought that he could and found to this surprise that he could snake, or to continuously drift, and the blue flame from underneath his avatar's back wheels changed color, first to yellow, then to pink. Curious, with a straight line ahead, he released his drift and blasted off for quite the long distance that put him into 1st Place far ahead of everybody.

The crowd let out a roaring cheer, Pinkie being the loudest, exhilarating Akira to the core. Turning one more time, he found himself going up a waterfall with boosters coming down with it. He drove over as many of them as he could, rocketing him up the falls with each blast from his exhaust until he reached another turn over a wooden bridge that send him back down another waterfall. Keeping himself in 1st, Akira felt a little wiry. It was still very early in the race that anything could happen to him.

His screen started flashing red along with the blaring of the sirens. "Like that, for example," Akira said, cursing himself underneath his breath. Cosigning to his fate as he had nothing to protect himself from the Blue Shell of Death, he was so far ahead that it shouldn't do much to his lead except only letting the others to catch up to him. He pressed on, ignoring the warning and finding it quite the nuisance as it bothered his concentration. Onto dry ground, the Blue Shell appeared above him and slammed down, blasting him once again. It was funny how one would hate the items only when they were used against yourself, but that was what made this franchise so much fun for him, the unexpected results along with the tension of what could happen that help turn the game into a near level playing field.

He still retained his 1st Place as he approached the checkered line, heading into Lap 2, passing all of the cute Shy-Guys as they work tirelessly in the mines. He drifted along the track, doing it almost as flawless and blasting off to strengthen his lead once again. Grabbing an item, he got three Banana Peels and immediately activated them and they circle his vehicle as he blasted up the waterfall. He thought that it would give him extra protection and felt relatively safe, at least for the more common items, and he came back down the waterfall and flew onto dry ground without any problems.

Then, a siren blared and he felt prepared for a regular red shell coming for him, only for it to bypass his banana defense and make a direct hit, spinning him out of control. Surprised and horrified by the fatal flaw, Akira continued to press on, hoping that it was just a fluke. But, before he could move on, another red shell struck him and he toppled over himself. And, a third one connected, sending him into another tumble.

"Oh, come on!" he screamed at the screen, stunned by the cheapness of it as other racers sped by him, dumping him into 3rd Place. He let out an infuriating growl as he continued driving, couldn't believe the bad luck he encountered.

In the 3rd and Final Lap, Akira felt a little tense about regaining his 1st Place back and did not navigate the tight corners as well as he liked, nearly falling off from the track. He needed to calm himself and constantly grabbed item boxes, hoping for something that would help him out. He threw Bob-Bombs ahead of him, but the racers swerved around them safely as they exploded and he had to watch out for discarded banana peels. Running out of track, it was becoming hopeless that Akira could regain his 1st Place that he had for the first two laps.

"There's got to be a way," he thought and looked at the transparent map on his screen and noticed something peculiar.

There was an extension of the track that seemed to stop in the middle, disappearing into nothing near the end of the track. Curious about it, he wondered if it was some sort of short-cut. Gliding off the waterfall and back on the ground, Akira decided to risk it to see what it could be. Approaching it, he activated his drift and veered right to where it indicated on the map. As he thought, a ramp waited for him and flew across the gap, cutting in front of the racer that was ahead of him and taking 2nd Place for himself.

The crowd cheered and he wondered what it meant, but when the checkered line appeared in front of him and the 1st Place Racer was nowhere in sight, he knew that he had lost. Crossing the finish line, he settled for 2nd Place once again.

In a comeback from the last race, Sora came in at 1st, then Akira in 2nd, followed by Hiro in 3rd, then Rachel in 4th, Penny in 5th, and Chloe in 6th.

"Aww, you were so close!" Pinkie cried out. "I mean, you were in 1st Place for like two/thirds of the whole thing!"

"But, it only matters at the very end," Akira said, getting a little exhausted as he slumped back into his seat.

The score tallied up and the whole room went into a clamor to see Sora, Hiro and Akira tied for 1st with 34 points each, followed by Rachel with 33 points. Chloe had 25 and Penny ended up with 23, which meant that they had no chance of winning even if they ended up winning the final race so they had to abstained. But, with the four remaining racers essentially tied up, the winner would be decided by the winner of the final race. From what Akira can gather from all of the excessive chatter around him, this was the closest race thus far.

"But, you can still win this!" Pinkie said, springing back to life.

"I don't know," Akira said. "The others are so good."

"And, so are you!"

All in all, Akira did very well. But, Rachel, Sora, and Hiro each won a race while he seemed to get bad luck when it came to him keeping his spot in 1st Place intact. Hearing many people around him talking about who could win, people were still going for either Sora or Rachel as the safe bet while Hiro's name got passed around a bit as the dark horse.

"Don't tell me that you're thinking about quitting, are you?" Pinkie whispered.

"No, of course not!" Akira said, feeling offended by the notion. "I'm just saying that I might not win this."

"Think like that you'll most definitely won't win," another voice said from the other side of him. He turned towards the voice and found a beautiful girl with red and gold locks of hair. With a black leather jacket and a green shirt, even his fashion sense told him it was quite the odd combination, but it seemed to suit her well.

"Hey, Sunset!" Pinkie greeted her.

"Pinkie, for the last time, it's Sandra," the girl said, looking annoyed with her.

"I know, I know."

Letting out a disgruntled sigh, but a hint of a smile still appeared on her lips for a brief moment, Sandra turned her attention back to Akira. "Anyway, you're handling of the game is quite impressive, especially with the drifting. Out of everybody, I believe that you have the best control."

"Thanks, but it's those shells that will most likely do me in," Akira said.

"Well, luck, good or bad, has always been a factor in these games. But, I'll gladly give you a tip." She leaned close to him. "You know that horn item? If you get it, hold on to it and use it when you most need it. It will destroy anything."

Akira was surprised by this information. "Anything?" he asked.

She nodded and stood back up. "Other than that, you got this. Just need to push a little harder," she said and gave him a quick wink and walked off into the crowd.

"She's one of the finalists in the race," Pinkie said. "Also, she may seem really nice now, but before, she used to be one nasty queen bee in our old school."

"Really?" Akira said.

"Yeah, but now she's one of the nicest people. Course, nobody really knows why she changed so suddenly like that."

Akira found it curious until Riku appeared from the crowd. "Alright, has everybody placed their bets in? Well, it looks like Rachel is the favorite to win, with a 3-to-1." A loud cheer erupted in the room, which Rachel waved to the crowd in thanks. "Followed by Sora with a 4-to-1." An equally loud cheer erupted with Sora pumping his hand in the air. Kairi, standing next to him, reached down and gave him a big hug. "Then, Hiro with a 10-to-1." A smaller, yet a more boisterous group, cheered, which Hiro seemed to appreciate as he smiled. "And, last but not least, Akira with a 25-to-1."

Pinkie, all by herself, exceeded everybody's as she jumped into the air. "A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA!" The boy didn't know whether he was moved or embarrassed by the display.

"Well, to those few brave souls, you know that you'll either be winning big or going home empty-handed," Riku said and turned to Akira. "No pressure, of course, Akira."

While the group chuckled, Akira gulped, feeling unnecessary weight on top of his shoulder as he thought about the people that he would cause problems if he lose. His hands quivered on the steering wheel as Riku left to get the final race ready and the people began talking in excitement about the final race. Akira felt like vomiting.

Then, felt a hand on his shoulder and, magically, felt a little better. Turning back, to his surprise, Penny stood next to him, smiling.

"You feeling okay?" she said.

"Um…a little," he said, chuckling a bit.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "Just do your best. I'll be cheering for you."

Akira stared at her hard, confused by what she said. "Cheering, for me? But, what about-"

She placed her finger on his lips, stopping him and winked at him. "Good luck," she said and stepped away. "A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA!" she chanted, which Pinkie joined in and it was just the two of them.

It was becoming more surreal, him being in a secret room participating in a racing tournament while being cheered on by a couple of people that he had only just met. He turned to Hiro, wondering what his reaction was to have his friend cheer for Akira instead. The boy genius never even looked back at him, his full attention was on the screen in front of him, looking ready for the next race to begin. As the screen started showing the final track, the crowd went wide, knowing that they were in for a show. Still hearing the two girls chanting his name, Akira felt invigorated. He felt that he could actually win this, not because he felt that he can, but because other people believe that he can.

The final track was a nostalgic one, "Royal Raceway" from the N64. With the final four racers at the starting line, the Lakitu dropped down to begin the countdown.

"3…2…1…GO!"

Blasting off from the starting line, Akira found himself in 2nd Place, but all four of them were clunked together and he found himself switching between 2nd and 3rd with the winding turns, which Akira had to be careful with his drifting and steering as he might not have enough room to maneuver. At the last tight turn, he saw Rachel flying right off the track and into the water, inciting loud groins from the crowd at something like that could cost her the race. Finally, Akira found himself in 1st Place again with his boosting and him collecting coins. But, knowing what was at stake, nobody would be settling for less as they would fight for the win.

He grabbed every item box that he can, activating the worthless ones quickly so he could get the one that he really needed. On the ramp, he boosted along and flew across the lake to land on the other side, capping his coin count to ten upon his landing. He coasted along the track, never letting up on his drifting and, finally, got the horn that he had been searching for. Keeping himself in 1st, he hoped that it would not happen, but at least he would be prepared for it, if what Sandra said was true. And, if that was the case, it could be a one-time use.

The others were still keeping up with him and the people were cheering for their favorites. But, he ignored all of that, not letting himself to be distracted by it as he entered the 2nd Lap. Looking on the map, Rachel seemed to have come back into the race with the help of Bullet Bill, but Akira was still ahead of the pack with his horn in his hand, ready for it to come his way. Then, just as he anticipated it, the sirens called for the encroaching Blue Shell, ready to take him down, but he was ready for it to do its worst. His hand over the middle of the steering wheel, he waited for it to appear, keeping his speed constant as he weaved through the track with ease. Then, appearing above him, he slammed his palm down earnestly, maybe a little extra hard to make sure that the game registered the input. The Blue Shell instantly disintegrated, leaving him untouched by it as he raced on without incident. As he expected, it was a one-time use with the horn disappearing, but it saved its life. However, with the race only half-way done, it was far from over.

The others were still catching up to him thanks to the items they acquired and Akira kept on grabbing items himself, hoping for the horn again, but it proved to be such a rare item as he got only mushrooms, green shells, and a Squitter. But, he made it through the 2nd Lap without incident and reached the 3rd Lap with a little confidence that he might win this.

Making his way through the tight turns, the siren sounded off and he knew that a red shell was coming for him. As he made the last tight turn, he saw it coming at him from the side, frightening him. It caught up to him and knocked him hard, sending him careening into the water. He slammed his fists on the wheel in frustration as the Lakitu fished him out and watched helplessly as the other racer sped by him, knocking him into last place. The crowd voiced their disappointment, adding to the demoralization of the event. With only less than a lap to go, there didn't seem much of a chance for him to win this.

 _It's not over yet_ he thought and slammed down on his gas petal, still seeing the others up in front of him as they fought for 1st Place. _It'll only matter at the very end._

He quickly gathered more coins, capping them at ten to get the most speed that he could get. Him being in last place meaning more chances of getting better items, like the Golden Mushroom, which he spammed to give him the boost that he needed to catch up, climbing up the ramp and across the pond. On the other side, he got to them, but still hung in the back and he was losing time. In just a few seconds, the race will be over.

He began his drifting, riding along the paved track, keeping himself in the middle of it as best as he could. He watched the flame turned color, from blue to yellow, then yellow to pink. He might come in last place, but maybe…

Making that final turn, the finish line lay in front and Akira let off out of his drift. He blasted off like a rocket, going much faster than he anticipated. The other racers, heading for the finish line, looked as though they were literally standing still as he made his way forward, meeting them just before the checkered line. And…

1st Place!

The crowd let out a humongous roar as his screen flashed his name as coming in 1st Place, followed by Hiro in 2nd, then Rachel in 3rd, and Sora in 4th. Tally up the points, Akira came out on top with 49, making him the winner of the entire cup.

Stunned by the unexpected victory, Akira slumped back into his seat, exhausted with his heart still beating hard in his chest, only for his exhilaration to be refueled with the happiness in his win. "A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA! A-KI-RA!" the crowd behind him chanted, with everybody joining in with Pinkie as she jumped into the air, screaming the loudest.

She ran to him from behind, wrapping her arms tight around his neck in a squeeze as she lifted him off from his seat. "THAT WAS AWESEOME!" Pinkie screamed. "I KNEW YOU CAN DO IT!"

"Thanks, Pinkie," he said, feeling thankful for her undying support. "Um, you can let go of me now."

"Oh, sorry," she said and quickly released him but still acting giddy.

He climbed out of his seat and the people still cheered for him as they close around to congratulate him on his unprecedented win. Being the center of attention for something like this, it reminded him of how people at his old school would cheer for their sports team on a win, congratulating them. He would clap along, but only in the background and out of respect and he would often imagine what it would feel like for him to be in that sort of position. Now, with that dream coming true for him, he felt like crying for joy.

"Hey, new kid." Turning around, Akira found Rachel and Sora standing next to him, both of them smiling. "That was a doozy winning like that!" Rachel said. "You showed a lot of guts by never giving up and giving it your all to the very end! I like that in a man," she said and good-heartily punched his arm. He flinched from the pain, but it felt oddly nice.

"Thanks," Akira said.

Sora walked up and held his right forearm up in a diagonal. Akira stared him, unsure of what it meant until he saw Hiro, still sitting in his kart watching from behind, held his forearm up the same way, indicating to Akira of what he needed to do. Akira copied him, holding it across from Sora's and waited. Then, Sora bumped his forearm into his, smiling amusingly as he dropped his arm. "We'll get you the hang of things around here," he said and patted Akira on the shoulder. "My sentiments are the same. That was freakin' awesome what you just did there!"

Akira smiled and nodded to him. "Well, you guys really put me on my toes the whole time. It just only made the victory all the more sweeter."

"Just don't let it get to your head, new kid," Rachel said, smirking. "I'm expecting a rematch from you."

"Anytime, anywhere," Akira reply, which Rachel nodded approvingly of the remark.

"Well, that's the end of that," Riku said, walking up to the front, giving Akira a pat on the back. "Nice job, Akira. That was a hell of a win. Even I was on the edge of my seat at that very last moment."

"Even the stoic Riku can have his butthole puckered up, huh?" Rachel said, chuckling.

"Well, at least I know that I'll be getting a slightly more interesting race with him being in it," Riku said, wrapping his arm around Akira shoulder. With his face becoming flushed by how close boy was to him, Akira looked at him and discover that Riku looked quite handsome with the rugged, yet still boyish face. Again, his heart began to race again and his legs felt a little wobbly that he thought that they might collapsed under the weight. He started taking in deep breaths to prevent it from happening.

"Hey, you okay?" Riku asked.

"I'm…I'm good," Akira said, his face still heating up.

A noise chimed in and Akira instantly recognized it as it being "Hunter's Chance" from _Final Fantasy IX._ "I need to take this," Riku said quickly, stepping away from Akira. "Excuse me, guys." Taking himself away from the group, Riku went into the back of the room, pulling out his phone and began talking quietly on it.

As the group started to talk more amongst themselves, Akira found himself by himself once again. It seemed like his five minutes of fame had ran out. Then, he found Penny going up to Hiro, which incited his curiosity about earlier that he wanted answers.

He walked up to them, which quickly Penny caught him. "Hey," she greeted and held out her hand to Akira. "Congratulations, Akira."

"Thanks, Penny," he said, taking it in appreciation. Then, he looked at Hiro as the boy looked up at him indifferently. "That was a good race, Hiro."

Hiro nodded and held out his hand to him. "Yeah, that was," he said, and genuinely smiled. Satisfied, Akira reached out and the two boys shook. "Um, hey, Penny, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?" the girl said, curious.

"Why…did you want to cheer for me? I thought that you would be cheering for Hiro."

"Oh, um…" the girl clammed up, looking unsure on what to say.

"She must have thought that you'd end up winning," Hiro said quickly, as if to help her out. "I mean, she did bet on you."

Akira looked at the girl, surprised. "You…betted on me?"

The girl, first looking displeased at Hiro, then uneasily at Akira as if she realized that a mistake had been made. "Uh…yeah."

Then, Akira looked at Hiro, who looked oddly unaffected by the new. "And, you're not upset about it?"

Hiro only shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. Then, Akira, feeling uneasy as the notion began to form in his mind that made the whole experience felt cheap, looked at the boy sternly. "Hiro-"

"Everyone, can I have your attention?" Riku called out, silencing the entire room as everybody turned to the white-haired boy. "Due to unforeseen circumstances, I'm afraid that the Final Cup will have to be postpone." A loud audible groan was casted out from the crowd. "Sorry, I just got a call and it's important that I take care of it immediately."

"Don't worry, I can race in your place," Sora said.

"And risk losing because of your poor driving skills? Fat chance," Riku said. "Besides, I want a opportunity to race the other finalists."

"Well, we need to schedule it so that everybody can be here," Sandra said.

"Oh! Oh!" a young girl with red hair named Alicia called out. "How about on opening day, when the game will be first revealed? That way you guys can give a demonstration!"

Clamor immediately began over the great potential of it and even Riku seemed intrigued by it. "For once, a plan coming from you that actually makes some sense," Riku said. "Alright, two weeks from now, on the game's schedule debut, that's when we'll have our Final's Cup. In the meantime, we can hone in our driving skills, make it even more exciting for the public." With that, Riku moved forward, marching quickly for the door. "See you then, Akira," Riku said, patting him on the back on his way out.

"What the hell is that all about?" Hiro asked, looking suspiciously at Riku as he walk out of the room.

"Don't know, really," Penny said. "Well, with the Finals put on hold, what do you guys want to do?"

"How about he we get out of here?" Hiro said, hopping out of his kart. "I want to see if that Prescott jerk has stopping playing out of sheer boredom."

"What, on _BlazBlue?_ I wouldn't count on it," Penny said, turning around.

Feeling as if the initial conversation was being ignored, Akira followed the two, not wanting to it to be put aside. "Hey, wait," he called out to them and the two looked back. "Look, Hiro, I don't know what you think of me, but I don't want you to feel sorry for me unless you actually mean it."

Hiro, looking confused, looked to Penny. "What are you talking about?"

"Did you lose the race on purpose?"

"No," Hiro said, laughing as if the notion was the dumbest thing he had ever heard. "If I did, then that was too close of a call. I may have an IQ over 250 but even I wouldn't be able to pull something like off."

"Oh," Akira said, feeling stupid for even thinking. "S-Sorry, I thought that-"

"No, it's fine," Penny said. "I can understand why you thought it odd that I would cheer for you instead of Hiro. And, you did win the race, fair and square."

"But, I'm still confused as to why you went for me instead of Hiro."

"Yeah, about that, Penny. Did you really have to do that, betting against me?" Hiro said, now looking at Penny with a raised eyebrow loaded with suspicion.

"Look, I'm sorry, Hiro, that I didn't go for you instead, but I just thought that Akira's got the edge over you," Penny said, not sounding at all concern for Hiro's feelings as the boy genius seemed to have detected it. "And, because of that, I got five times of free credits! Oh, yeah! High five, Akira!" Holding her hand up in the air, Akira gave her what she wanted, with some enthusiasm in it. "Come on, I'm gonna buy you something nice as thanks!" she said, holding on to Akira's arm as she pulled him along with her, leaving behind a grumpy looking Hiro as he followed them from behind.

Akira, unsure what was happening, looked at the girl holding onto his arm as she smiled at him while she led him out of the room. _Man, what a day_ he thought, wondering if the day would get any wilder.


End file.
